


The Owl’s Apprentice

by SilverWolfPen



Category: The Owl House
Genre: Amity makes a choice, Didn’t say anything about...shenanigans, F/F, Kisses and hugs and maybe cuddles, Lumity, Nightmares and Dreamscapes, Post YBOS, Weirdness
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-24
Updated: 2021-01-16
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:41:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 47,800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26626129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverWolfPen/pseuds/SilverWolfPen
Summary: Trouble, trouble, boil and bubble. Realities collapse, turn to rubble.Eye of Demon, wings of Owl. Old and young, turned so fowl.Worlds collide, stars shall cross. Turn the key o’er the Dream be lost.Falling moons and rising suns. Something Weird this way comes.
Relationships: Amity Blight/Luz Noceda, Eda Clawthorne & King & Luz Noceda, Eda Clawthorne & Lilith Clawthorne, Willow Park & Gus Porter
Comments: 83
Kudos: 188





	1. Preview

**Author's Note:**

> TOH Fans! Wow, what a ride this show has been! I have to say that when I first watched A Lying Witch and a Warden, I did not expect to be pulled into such an amazing and fantastical story. Not only is it full of brilliant animation and loveable characters - an understatement, I know - but is a storytelling feat that makes me so happy Disney has finally chosen to take the next step in the progressive arts. Dana Terrace is a masterful storyteller who has given us the escape we did not know we would need in this dumpster fire that is 2020, and we all know she is not finished yet. C’mon Season 2!!!
> 
> All of which takes me to the character ship I did not see coming until it practically slapped me in the face, thanks to a clip I stumbled across in Youtube. Oh yes, I am talking about the one that has sent fans into a craze that I’m sure social media was not prepared for: Lumity!!!
> 
> And I jumped on board, roundtrip ticket to the end we all are going nuts for during this hiatus. From Fan Fiction and Archive of our Own, to Youtube and Instagram, the artwork and stories created to bring our fantasies to life of this loveable duo is unbelievable. So, I’ve decided to throw my proverbial hat in the ring to move things along as we anticipate the coming of the next season.
> 
> Please note that while my goal is to post a chapter a week, life may yet throw curveballs that will cause delay, but I will stay true to keeping this story a-going! Here is a sneak peek of what will soon be in store for the Owl Family, it is brief, but I’m curious to see what you all predict will happen? Tell me your thoughts and I will answer as I can. But for now, let’s dive into that crazy world of the Boiling Isles and see what shenanigans our loveable dork Luz Noceda gets herself into as we turn the key and enter the portal to The Owl House.

Luz slowly peeled her eyes open at the sound of the alarm and groaned, pulling her sleeping bag over her head and willing the annoying machine to magically sprout wings and sly out the window for just a few more precious seconds of sleep. Heck, maybe it would happen this time? The sound of a door creaking open and footsteps on the rickety floor told her that, sadly, certain things only existed in dreams.

“Okay campers, time to get up! It’s another reality-filled day!”

The room filled with the groans of girls reluctantly getting out of bed, sleeping bags unzipping and socked feet shuffling on the floor. Tossing her own sleeping bag off, Luz slid down the squat ladder of her bunk and snagged her toiletries bag that she had hanging on the nearby hook. If she was quick enough, she just might be able to make it to the showers while there was still enough hot water? That thought in mind, Luz pulled on her shoes and jogged out of the cabin in the early-morning fog still shifting through the campgrounds.

She had just passed the mess hall when something darted past her ear, brushing her shoulder and causing her to jump six feet in the air. “What the?” Swatting at whatever mosquito was making breakfast out of her, Luz frowned when her fingers brushed something small and...fluffy? Pinching it, she brought up to her face a tiny brown - “Feather? Where the heck did this come from?”

“Who?”

“Yeah, that I was wondering, and where?” Immediately, Luz looked around. Did she just respond to a disembodied voice? Not good, if the camp counselor caught her again, she’d have to write another essay on the falsehood of imaginary friends.

“Hoo,”

Luz turned around and looked up at the mess hall roof, where a tiny brown owl drifted down to land. “Oh! You’re just an owl! Man, you really scared me there little fella! What’re you doing out here? Shouldn’t you be home in the forest resting?”

The owl tilted its head at her, a curious gaze in its glowing yellow eyes. Or, was that just from the sun trying to break through the fog? Shrugging, Luz shouldered her toiletries bag.

“Well, I’d love to stay and chat, but carrying on one sided conversations with forest critters is not exactly allowed here. Stay safe, little fella!” She then turned and jogged on towards the girls shower.

The owl watched the girl disappear into the grey brick building and hopped along the rooftop until he reached the end and leaped down, alighting on a signpost directing to the Mess Hall, Check Room, and Lake. A figure appeared in the mist and the owl hooted again, reaching out with a taloned foot to grasp hold and pull himself onto their shoulder, ruffling his feathers as he settled.

“I know Owlbert,” the figure whispered, tucking themselves against the side of the cabin as campers began to mill about. “I’m not happy about this either, but this is how we’ll have to save her. We can fix this, together.”

The dreams Luz had for that hot shower were quickly dashed the second she switched on the water, bombarded by what felt like a just-melted iceberg while the gaggle of girls that had beat her to it howled with laughter. On the plus side, it did wake her up. Teeth chattering, bones rattling in her skin, Luz cocooned herself in a towel and curled up in as tight of a ball as she could, wishing for all the world she had a way to warm herself up instantly. Instead, she was forced to rub herself dry and yank on a fresh pair of shorts and shirt the camp had supplied upon her arrival; grey-green with an image of a teenage boy crammed into a box holding out a thumbs up and a psychotic smile plastered on his face. Over the boy were the words Camp Reality Check, the back emblazoned with “Think inside the box!” Swallowing a wistful sigh, Luz gathered up her items and trudged slowly back to her cabin, stopping to look for the little owl friend, but he was gone.

“At least one of us has a way out of here.”

Seeing the rest of her cabin making their way to the mess hall, Luz ducked into the squat building to toss her things onto her bunk and darted back out. Maybe her shower would not be a great start to her morning, but you could never go wrong with breakfast, even if it was a bowl of thick, sludgy oatmeal and a half of a wrinkled grapefruit. Trying her best to ignore thoughts of pancakes or cereal, Luz accepted her tray from the lady behind the counter and shambled her way to a table tucked into the corner of the dining area, sitting so her back was to the room. She didn’t need to be reminded that even in a place like this, she was still an outcast, a weirdo among weirdos.

Everytime the counselors met her, it was the same thing. Fantasy was for children, balancing checkbooks and learning about mortgages would help her prepare for the future. Teenagers needed to learn responsibility, not play make-believe or doodle in their checkbooks. She had to learn how to be normal, one in the herd, compliant, ordinary.

“Um, excuse me? Is this seat taken?”

The voice pulled Luz from her thoughts and she turned. The girl behind her smiled shyly, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear while she balanced her breakfast tray with one hand carefully.

“Um, sure!” Luz pulled her tray out of the center of the table to make room for the newcomer to set her own down, her eyes darting from Luz to the surrounding area, making Luz look around as well, then back to the girl. “Are you part of the new group? I don’t think I’ve seen you here before.”

The girl poked cautiously at her oatmeal, her eyes down. “I just arrived last night, by myself.”

Luz winced sympathetically. “Yeesh, your parents must be really mad at you to send you out by yourself like that.”

“You could say that.” Again, she tucked a stray lock of auburn hair behind her ear, her fingers seemingly lingering there for a moment before picking up her spoon. “How long have you been here?”

“Almost two months, mi mami sent me out first thing when school ended. Apparently using live snakes for your book report on The Good Witch Azura does not constitute ‘proper behavior’.”

The girl’s hazel eyes lit up and she stared at Luz excitedly. “You read that series too?”

“Read,” Luz corrected, looking at the floor. “When the camp bus picked me up, I had to throw my book away. Only nonfiction is allowed here, we have to remember the difference between fantasy and reality.” she slumped forward on her elbows.

“I’m so sorry,” the girl lifted her hand for a moment, as if to reach over, then dropped back to the table.

“That’s the fun of Camp Reality Check.” Sitting back, Luz offered a smile to the girl. “But hey, maybe we can both be Azura fans for the rest of the summer? Like a secret book club or something?”

The girl stared at Luz, her eyes shining briefly, but she rubbed her face and the look was gone. “That would be nice, thanks.”

“Awesome!” Luz held out her hand. “I’m Luz Noceda. Nice to meet you…?”

“Amity,” the girl took her hand and smiled. “Amity Blight.”


	2. A New Day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Friday everyone! Thank you so much for the support with my little sneak peek! I was anxious to see your thoughts and I’m glad it did the trick. I should mention this chapter was first created after nearly bawling my eyes out watching Agony of a Witch. The story itself takes place a few days after YBOS, to give a good time frame.
> 
> With that said, let’s jump right in, and I hope you enjoy.

The wind howled in her ears, gusts of hot air that threatened to pull her into the dark abyss below. Sparks flew all around in bursts of sapphire and gold, explosions of color that depicted the violent battle above her. She pushed at the blue barrier that surrounded her, trying to roll it like a giant hamster ball, but any attempt to move only put her in harm's way that forced her to be saved.

Again and again, her round prison bounced and spun across the bridge, back and forth between the dueling witches, one using her as a shield, the other desperate to protect her. Inky darkness spread along the golden eyes that watched her movements with fear, calling out her name every time she was yanked away. Her own eyes filled with tears at the sight of her mentor, the witch who had taken her in, using the last ounce of her magic to hold her aloft from the jagged spikes.

“Listen to me kid, I’m going away, and I don’t know if I’ll bounce back this time.”

“Eda, stop! You’ll run out of magic!”

“Luz,”

She felt her heart shudder deep within her chest.

“Thank you, for being in my life.”

Golden light erupted from where her mentor stood, swarming her body with the electrical warmth of power, seering through her eyelids, even as she squeezed them shut against the glare -

Luz sat up with a gasp, her eyes wide with horror. “Eda!”

Something across the room crashed and a voice yelped in pain. “Wah! Luz!” Rubbing the skull covering his head, King limped out from behind the heavy wooden chest Luz had launched him at, cradling a worn rabbit stuffed animal in one arm. “Warn a demon before you jump like that! Francois had to break my fall!” His narrowed eyes widened at the tears sliding down the human girl’s cheeks and he rushed to her side. “Hey, hey, I’m okay! Here, you wanna hold Francois? He’s great at comforting.”

Luz sniffed and wiped the tears from her face, covering King’s paws with a hand. “Thanks King.”

“Another nightmare?”

Slowly, Luz pulled her legs to her chest and rested her chin on her knees. “It was just like before, no matter what I try, I’m stuck in that stupid bubble and can’t do anything to help. Everytime I’m in danger, Eda wastes more of her magic to save me and the emperor captures her. It’s my fault she was stuck as the Owl Beast!” 

“Don’t say that! You know Eda wouldn’t have done it any other way!” Grunting from the effort of wriggling his way onto her lap, King pushed Luz’s chin up so she could meet his eyes. “It’s because of you she is home, not another statue in the Conformatorium. You got us out of there! As your ruler, I demand you stop with the teen-angst pity-party and think of what you can do now.”

Luz sniffed again. “You mean, be grateful that Eda has no magic, her curse is split with Lilith, and I have no way of going back home?”

“Actually, I was thinking you could get us some late night snacks. I mean, you did chuck me across the room.”

That made Luz giggle and she nodded. “Yeah, I did, sorry about that.” She stood and shuffled across the room, her eyes downcast, not looking ahead as she opened the door. A squeak from King at her back and the warm huff of breath in her bangs did make her look up.

The Owl Beast stared at her, taking up the entirety of the doorway. Luz yelped and fell back, wildly crab-walking until the back of her head bumped the edge of her windowsill while King bolted under the wad of blankets and tried his best to become one with the bed.

“Eda?!”

A low cicada-like hum filled the room as the large creature pushed its way through the narrow frame, a few feathers popping up from its efforts, until it stood center in the room. Wide black eyes fixed on Luz’s shaking form, either waiting for the moment she would bolt or simply watching her. The hum turned into a grumble and the Owl Beast plopped down on the floor, reminding Luz of a big cat. A very, VERY, big cat. It tilted its head as it continued to watch her, not blinking, sniffing the air, until it stood up and walked towards her.

“Luz!” King hissed from beneath the blankets, but Luz didn’t move, her body frozen as the massive Owl Beast lumbered straight to her and huffed in her face.

“Eda,” she whispered, fresh tears welling up in her eyes. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean for any of this to happen to you. I was stupid and careless and-”

The Owl Beast cut her off with a snarl and leaned closer so that their faces were mere inches apart. Luz held her breath and squoze her eyes shut, then felt something warm and soft brush the tears from her cheeks. The rumbling swarmed her head and she opened her eyes to see the Owl Beast slowly back away, still watching her intently, its tongue running over its face. Luz brushed at her face and a small downy feather came off in her hand. She looked back to the large beast that had settled on the floor next to her sleep mat, resting its head on its paws. Another low grumble came from its throat and it nudged Luz’s pillow, nearly sending King into a frenzy.

Luz got to her feet, the feather still cupped in her hand. Walking as delicately as she could towards the massive creature, Luz knelt on the mat and, carefully pulling her blanket up to her shoulders, laid down. There was a brief shuffling as King scooted into her arms, clutching Francois to his chest. Above them, the Owl Beast snorted and pressed its side to Luz’s back, its hum turning into a soft coo.

***  
With a jolt, Luz sat up and looked around the room. At the foot of her mat, King was snoring softly, Francois tucked to his side, exactly where he always slept. No scratches marred the floor boards, not a single feather was in sight, everything was undisturbed.

Luz sighed and collapsed on her pillow. Now she was starting to dream within her dreams? Her hand shifted to her neck to finger the thin chain on which the key that once summoned the portal to the Human World rested, now nothing more than a keepsake.

We won this time, but Belos will be back. Eda and Lilith are both carrying the curse, and Eda is without her magic. Rolling on her side, she stared at the wall and a small patch of moonlight that managed to creep in through the window. If only there was something I could do to fix this. But, what?

The silvery-white light inched its way across the wall as time passed, eventually dissapaiting with the setting of the moon to be replaced with the golden glow of sunrise. Rubbing her heavy eyes, Luz stood up and began to get ready for the day. So far as Hexside was concerned, Luz had not dropped out, which meant another day of classes. Luz shrugged on the multi-colored uniform Principle Bump had created for her and shuffled out of her room. Voices carried up from the stairs that led down to the kitchen, both stern in tone that were increasingly becoming more escalated.

“She is not going to continue with her education at Hexside! The emperor’s guards will be all over that school in seconds if they learn she is there!” That was Lilith, her words sounding strained from exhaustion. The weight of the curse was already affecting her. “Not to mention what will happen once word gets out that I betrayed the emperor and left the coven! Don’t forget, one of the students attending is my...was my protege.”

“That’s not going to happen,” Came Eda’s response. “First off, Luz is the one who gets to decide if she wants to continue at Hexside or not. Bump promised me he would not tell the Emperor’s Coven Luz would be attending. And if Belos is half as smart as he makes himself out to be, he’ll know not to mess with my kid again. Secondly, nothing is going to happen concerning your ‘protege’. If anything, she’ll be too clammed up enough around Luz, that kid goes all goofy if she’s in the same room as her.”

Luz blinked. Amity?...I wonder why? Shrugging, Luz descended the stairs into the kitchen. Immediately, both witches went quiet; Eda flashed her a toothy grin while Lilith awkwardly looked away. It was still hard to believe days ago she had tried to impale Luz on the spines beneath the emperor’s castle and now, they were both living under the same roof.

“Morning, kiddo.” Eda broke Luz’s reverie, as if the conversation had not taken place. “You’re up early. Gonna head back to that boring old place of learning and obedience?”

Looking from Eda to Lilith and back, Luz sighed and forced a smile on her face. “Yup! Unless Bump decides to toss me into the Detention Track the second I walk in, but then I’ll have the Secret Room of Shortcuts, so it’ll be good.”

“Secret...Room of…?” Lilith glanced at Eda.

“Long story,”

The elder sister rolled her eyes. “I’m sure it is. Human,” she immediately winced at the guarded look Luz gave her as the girl opened the kitchen door to leave. “Be careful. If the Emperor’s Coven comes looking for you -”

“I’ll take care of it. Remember, I have the Most Powerful Witch of the Boiling Isles as my teacher,” Luz winked at her mentor. “I’ll be okay. See you later!” She shut the door and walked around to the front of the house towards the path that led into the woods.

“Hoot, hoot! Have a good day at school, Luz!”

Luz looked over her shoulder and waved to the house demon. “Thanks Hooty! See you later!” Shouldering her school bag, Luz walked down the path towards Hexside, her mind running through the conversation between Eda and Lilith. At least Eda still believed she could handle herself with the Coven, and she didn’t blame Lilith for being concerned about being spotted, but Amity ratting her out? She would never do that! Maybe back when they had met, but they were friends now.

“I wonder what Eda meant when she said she goes all goofy?”

***

It took all of Amity’s willpower to not spring from her bed with impatience as the healer carefully examined her still-injured leg, slowly running her blue-lit hands over the glowing glyphs. The glyphs had done their job, Amity had already proven that much when the healer asked her to walk across the full stretch of her bedroom and the upstairs hallway without assistance. Yes, it hurt like heck and there was some limping, but that would go away in a few days!

Get me out of this thing so I can see Luz! Amity immediately felt her face go warm and quickly blamed it on the extra effort of lugging her casted foot around. She was anxious to get back to school to learn everything that had happened, from the field trip of the emperor’s palace to the broadcasted rescue of the monstrous creature that had been called Eda. Of course, Amity had watched the spectacle on her crystal ball, Mother and Father insisted on her watching anything and everything that involved the island’s exalted ruler.

But, petrifying Eda? Yes, the witch was a wanted criminal and had outlandish ways with her magic, but turning her to stone? Shocked at the news, all Amity could do was stay glued, her emotions jumping all over the place as the events unfolded. Disbelief as she watched the owl-like beast that was Eda be placed before the petrification device, her previous mentor Lilith in the cage with her; a strange mix of pride and humor as Gus and Willow took the camera and began chanting for Eda’s freedom. However, once Luz appeared on the stand, the owl staff clutched in her hands, a cloak that could only be made of Witch’s Wool draped across her shoulders billowing dramatically in the wind, Amity was almost positive her heart had stopped. Even with the hood covering her face and the limited views of the eyeball cams, Amity could recognize that crazy human anywhere. With each glyph the human used to fight the emperor’s guards, Amity anxiety spiked, and not until the Owl Beast’s silhouette disappeared into the light of the moon did she realize she had been holding her breath.

You stupid, reckless, headstrong human! She nearly shouted at the broadcast. Yet, despite those words, despite the fact she wanted to wring Luz’s neck for putting herself in the crosshairs of the Isle’s most powerful witch, all Amity could do was smile. Granted, her smile did not last long when Edric and Emira burst through her door a moment later, having too watched the broadcast with their parents.

She relaxed when her older siblings began to babble about the reveal of Eda’s bestial self, which Amity assured them she had no idea about, and of Luz standing up to the Emperor’s Coven. The twins were amazed with the human’s strength and skill in her magic, excited to see her back at school so they could ask her all about it. And so was Amity, once she was out of her cast.

And today is the day! Her lips quivered into a hint of a smile as the healer told her mother she had healed enough to return to her day to day activities.

“Most of them,” the healer said, dismissing the healing glyphs with a wave of her hand. “There will be some discomfort for a couple more days and minor swelling, but a light healing spell to reduce the inflammation at night will help.”

Her mother had thanked the healer and escorted her to the door before turning back to Amity. Aside from her studies and magical training, Amity was to be nowhere else but home. A Blight never showed any sign of weakness, recovering from an injury was no exception, something to keep behind locked doors until nothing could be detected. And after so many days of staying cooped up in her room, Amity was ready to be gone.

Assuring her mother in the dismissive, nonchalant tone she had rehearsed for so many years she would only go between the school and home, Amity retrieved her school books and exited Blight Manor, summoning her Abomination to support her as she walked. She didn’t care if Ed and Em were at her heels to “protect her”, her eagerness propelled her away from the grandiose mansion towards Hexside. And, Amity clutched her books tighter as hope blossomed in her chest, the school’s only human student.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> P.S. And there you have it folks, the first official chapter of The Owl’s Apprentice. I’ll be releasing new chapters on Fridays, so stay tuned and let me know your thoughts on where you think this will go!
> 
> See you all next time in: The Oracle Said It.


	3. The Oracle Said It

Luz stared up at the wide doors of Hexside looming high above her. What if choosing to resume her lessons here was a mistake? Like Lilith said, the Emperor’s Coven would not hesitate to attack her for all she had done, but at the same time, Luz had taken down nearly every single guard there with her glyph magic. Of course, Principle Bump could turn her away if he so chose…

“Whelp,” Luz took a deep breath and squared her shoulders. “I won’t know until I try!” With as much courage as she could muster, Luz strode into the halls of Hexside, doing her best to imitate the same bold stride she imagined Eda using in her time. All of that stopped when after only two steps, the entire student population swarmed her.

“Luz! You were incredible!”

“You fought the Emperor’s Coven! That’s amazing!”

“Does Eda shapeshift? Has she taught you?”

“Can you show us your glyph magic?”

A mass of thorny vines erupted from beneath Luz’s feet to push back the energized crowd, sprouting flowers as they domed over her head.

“Ladies and gentlemen, please, give the human some room!” Gus exclaimed, pushing his way through the students with Willow behind, a glowing circle of green hovering in her hand. “Remember, Luz is still a student like us, so please, give her some space! At least, enough for her to get to her locker!”

The crowd slowly backed away and dispersed into the halls, their murmurs of excitement echoing. Luz blinked and carefully stepped out of the thorn barrier.

“Uh, thanks guys, I didn't expect that.” She scratched her head. “Guess I was wrong.”

Willow dismissed her spell and the vines resceeded. “Well, what did you expect? Everyone who knows you saw you taking on the Emperor’s Coven, of course they’d want to know what happened! And us!” The witchling grabbed Luz’s hands. “When we told Eda what happened, she looked absolutely murderous! How could Lilith capture her? And why was Eda so…”

“Feathery? Long story…” Luz glanced around the still-crowded halls and back to her friends. “I’ll tell you guys what happened, but not here, and Amity. I want her to know what happened too…Do either of you know how long Lilith was mentoring her?”

There was a confused look shared between Gus and Willow.

“Well,” Gus paused. “From what I heard, after the Covention incident, Amity stopped going to her for training. Why?”

“I’ll tell you later,”

The school bell let out a shattering scream and all three looked at the time.

“Oh jeez! I have to get to Oracle class!” Shouldering her bag, Luz dashed away, waving over her shoulder. “Meet me at lunch! I promise I’ll tell you guys what happened!” Turning her head, Luz rounded the corner and continued down the hall as fast as she could, partly to avoid being late and to avoid any other students from stopping her to talk about her face off with the Emperor’s Coven. Of all the things to suddenly gain popularity for, taking after her mentor to become a wanted criminal was not what Luz had expected. Yes, the emperor had “granted freedom” for Eda to cover losing the portal, but that didn’t mean they were out of the woods yet.

“Watch it!”

Luz froze in place, practically skidding to a halt going up on her toes, leaning over a bent-backwards, red-faced -

“Amity?!” Snapping to attention, Luz held her hand out to help her friend up, noticing the Abomination supporting her from behind. “Wow! You finally got your cast off! I’ll bet that feels good?” She glanced at the time again and paled. “Dang it, I need to get to class. See you at lunch, girlfriend!” Dashing off before Amity could respond, Luz all but flew through the door to her class and planted her behind in her seat.

Back in the hall, Amity tried to maintain the concentration of her Abomination helping her walk to her class. Much easier said than done, as she was positive her brain had short-circuited after Luz called her “girlfriend.”

It’s just an expression, she didn’t mean it literally. That only made her heart sink lower in her chest, but she shook it off. Luz said she would see her at lunch so there must be something she wanted to talk to her about.

“Ggguuuhhh…” The Abomination moaned as if agreeing to her thoughts and Amity shushed it before turning to the board. The last thing she needed was the opinion of a pile of animated goo about her feelings towards Luz. 

***

“Prophecies are the Oracles’ most famed ability,” the professor said as she handed out crystal balls to the class. “It is even said the Human Realm has its own myths of the powers they possess, if I’m not mistaken?”

Realizing she was the intended student to the question, Luz looked up from the Azura doodle she had been working on and nodded at the teacher. “Oh yeah, us humans love prophecies!”

“Well then, you most certainly will love today’s lession: prophecies of the self.” Holding a crystal ball up for the class to watch the ghostly form of an Oracle to appear, the professor gestured to the purple creature. Slowly, the Oracle turned towards the professor. “Oracle, what does my future hold?”

“Your knowledge is great, your skill is vast, for many years is your future to teach this class.”

The professor nodded and dismissed it back into the crystal. “For today, we will practice summoning small prophecies. Please, do not anticipate great legendary prophecies to appear in this class,” she leveled a look at Luz, who tried her best to not appear disappointed.

Actually, she did feel a tad relieved to hear that. As much fun as being given a great prophecy to fulfill, taking on Emperor Belos, trying to free Eda from her curse, and being severed from her home was more than enough for Luz to handle. That was for The Good Witch Azura, not the Boiling Isles. What would a prophecy look like for the Boiling Isles anyway? The last time Luz had been given a prophecy, it had resulted in luring Eda into a trap set by a rival potion seller with Luz as the bait.

Luz shook her head and looked at her crystal ball. Time to see what short-term prophecy her Oracle would give her. Probably something to do with Boscha picking on her again or stubbing her toe. Or, maybe it could tell her when the next Good Witch Azura would be released? The hiatus was driving her crazy!

Carefully, Luz placed her hand over the crystal ball, feeling the soft warmth pulsate like a heart as she watched the deep violet smoke swirl around, her own heartbeat slowing to match. A shudder traveled up her arm and Luz quickly pulled back for the mummy-like creature that rose up in a burst of smoke. Clearing her throat, Luz picked up her pencil and set the tip to a blank page. “Alrighty Oracle, what does my future hold?”

A single pale-yellow eye blinked at her, its gaze staring, completely silent. Luz glanced around the classroom at the other students, all writing down their prophecies. Did she do something wrong? Was she supposed to use a glyph for this summoning? Smoke wisped over her hand and Luz looked at the Oracle, only to jump back as it suddenly lurched to her face, its eye now streaming with light that almost seemed to pour from the socket, a black slit pupil in its center.

“Trouble, trouble  
Boil and bubble.  
Realities collapse.  
Turn to rubble.

Eye of Demon,  
Wings of Owl.  
Old and young,  
Turned so fowl

Worlds collide,  
Stars shall cross.  
Turn the Key  
O’er the Dream be lost.

Falling moons  
And rising suns.  
Something Weird  
This way comes.”

Smoke hissed from beneath the Oracle as it shot back into the crystal ball, leaving Luz wide-eyed and her jaw hanging open. “Um...can you repeat that last part?” She looked at her notebook and felt a chill slither down her spine at the words she did not remember writing scrawled on the page.

So much for small prophecies.

***

“Luz! Over here!” Willow waved at her friend from the cafeteria table, but Luz did not look up, her eyes glued to her notebook and the words written on the page.

Eye of demon, wings of owl, something weird coming? Geez, that narrowed things down to the entirety of the Boiling Isles! What the heck was that Oracle talking about? She was just coming down from Belos and freeing Eda, why did she have to get some wacko prophecy on top of everything else?

“Luz!”

“Ah!” She yelped when Willow practically jumped in front of her, almost causing Luz to toss her lunch tray in the air. “Willow! Dios mio, you scared me!”

“Sorry Luz, but we’ve been trying to get your attention for the past five minutes.” Willow looked at the notebook in her hand. “I thought studying while walking was Amity’s thing?”

“I do not study while I walk!” Amity objected, walking up behind Luz, her own lunch tray balanced carefully in one hand while the other held her Abomination’s arm for support.

“Yes, you do. Isn’t that how you walked into Skara’s locker a couple weeks ago?”

I walked into the locker because Luz distracted me! Was what Amity wanted to snap, her face starting to flush red at the memory of tumbling face-first into the locker’s gaping mouth. Only because she caught Luz watching her with that adorably goofy smile, and just so happened to be holding a book in front of her. “I. Had. An. Exam!”

Willow covered her mouth to hide a snicker, but Luz did not respond, already sitting down with her eyes glued back to her notebook. What the heck did any of this mean?

“Luz? Hexside to Luz. Can you hear me?” Willow frowned at the serious gaze her friend had on the page before her and looked at Gus and Amity.

“Hello?” Waving his hand in front of Luz, Gus sighed when she only blinked and shook his head. “What’s up with her?”

Eyeing the human carefully, Amity thought for a moment and leaned to her side. “Hey Luz, the library just got the newest graphic novel for Good Witch Azura: Maze of Dreams and I have first dibs to borrow it.”

“De veras?!” Luz whipped around in her seat and grabbed Amity’s shoulders. “Dios mio! Amity, that is so cool! We’re reading that together first thing after school and...wait...that’s not due till winter...unless…” she gasped and whispered reverently. “You got an early copy?”

Amity chuckled and carefully peeled Luz’s hands from her shoulders, hoping her face was not as hot as it felt from the sudden contact. “No, early winter it is. I was trying to get your attention. We all were,” she nodded to Willow and Gus before looking at Luz. “What’s going on? Why do you have your Oracle Track notebook out?”

Luz frowned. “That was a mean trick.” She signed and looked at her friends. “I’m sorry you guys. It’s this prophecy that I got in class today. We were supposed to get small prophecies, but I got the opposite.”

“What do you mean?”

Sighing again, Luz pushed the notebook to the middle of the table for the group to read, nodding when Amity asked if she could take a look, reading it aloud in a low, careful tone.

“Something weird this way comes?” Gus repeated when Amity had finished. “What the heck does that mean?”

“I don’t know,” Luz sipped at her Apple Blood. “But I wrote it in uppercase, so it must mean something.”

Willow adjusted her glasses as she looked over the words. “That’s not the only one; Demon, Owl, Key, Dream, those all must be important. The part with Owl, young and old, and fowl, that has to involve Eda and Lilith, or maybe Hooty? Or Owlbert?”

Luz threw up her hands. “That’s the problem! None of these words make any sense! I just got back from one major incident, I don’t need anything else!” Groaning, she dropped her head onto the table. “Losing my way home was enough.”

At that, all three witchlings stared at her. “What?!”

Amity grabbed Luz’s shoulder. “What do you mean you lost your way home? I thought you said Eda had a portal directly to the Human Realm?”

“Not after I incinerated it so Belos couldn’t use it. This key is all I have left of it.” Luz pulled the device out from under her collar. “Don’t think I haven’t tried to see if it still works. I don’t know what Belos wanted with the portal, but I couldn’t just leave it with him! Stupida!” Her head hit the table again.

Amity, Gus, and Willow looked at her, unsure what to do or say. To see their usual upbeat friend so dower was unnerving. Scanning the words on the page, Amity rubbed her chin, intrigued by what message was hidden. She remembered the library did have some special book collections, but borrowing them was not an easy task. Her mother had made it very clear that so long as her leg was still injured, Amity was to go directly back home. But one look at the slumped form of the only human she knew had her mind working on a plan. She may not yet have the courage to tell Luz how she felt, but she would not leave her helpless.

“I’ve got an idea, but it will be risky.”

From the table, Luz mumbled. “I’d beg to differ after what I did.”

“Just,” Amity sighed. “Listen. The library has loads of books on all of the Nine Covens and, no surprise, the Oracle Coven has one of the largest selections. I know it’s not my track, but I know of some books that might be able to help us out. The problem is they are extremely valuable and the librarian does not loan them out of the building. If we can get there early enough, and we don’t cause any trouble,” she eyed Luz. “I might be able to get an exception made for us to actually borrow them. That way we can try to break down the prophecy and - eep!” Her words, and heart, stopped dead when Luz pulled her into a massive hug.

“Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!!! You’re the best, Amity! I don’t know what I’d do without you!” Clueless to the fact her friend was having a heart attack, Luz turned to Willow and Gus. “It’s settled! We’ll head right to the library after school to get those books! That way I can tell you guys everything that happened at the Conformitorium!”

“One problem,” Amity cleared her throat. “My mother has told me I can’t go anywhere aside from home and school, so long as my leg is still healing. Blights can’t show any sign of weakness,” she turned away with a sigh. “No matter what.”

Gus’ face fell. “Yikes...So, how are we going to get those books?”

“So long as my parents are convinced I’m still injured, I won’t be allowed anywhere else. They’ll keep me in my room until they believe I’m healed.”

“Oh really?”

Amity looked at Luz and her stomach immediately dropped at the grin that was slowly spreading across her face, which only meant one thing: Luz was scheming. “No, whatever you’re thinking, the answer is no!”

“Luz,” Willow reached across the table. “Trust me, the Blights are not a family you want to get into trouble with. Remember what they put Amity and me through just because they thought I wasn’t a strong enough witch -”

“Which is why we’re going to be sneaky.” Luz could not ignore the shenanigan wheels starting to turn. “Amity knows what books to get, so if we come up with a legit reason why she would need to be at the library for a whole day, then we’re set! And remember, I can borrow Owlbert from Eda, so we can get to and from in a short amount of time. So, why don’t we try it after school?”

“Today?” Amity swallowed. “That’s going to be too soon, I-”

“Oh, come on Mittens! Live a little!”

The four friends turned to see Edric and Emira sit down next to their younger sister, Edric slinging his arm over her shoulders. “We all know Mom and Dad won’t be home until late tonight from that coven meeting, we’ll cover for you.”

“And why,” Amity tried to shrug out of her brother’s hold. “Would I believe you?”

“Can’t the older siblings help their baby sis and her friends?” Emira winked at Luz who turned away with a blush. “Besides, you’ve been cooped up in your room for long enough, go have some fun for a change. You’re too young to be following the rules.”

Edric grinned at her friends. “Mittens would be happy to go with you guys to the library after school! It’ll be one of the few places she’d want to go to anyways.”

“Shut up!” Swatting her brother’s arm away, Amity crossed hers and frowned. “Okay, fine! If it’ll get rid of you two, I’ll help them look after school.”

The siblings smiled at each other and ruffled Amity’s hair. “Have fun at the library, Mittens! And, Luz? Try not to keep her out too late.” Before Amity could take a swing at them, the brother and sister darted off snickering.

Luz gaped at the twins for a moment and glanced at Amity. “They were…”

“Pushy? Annoying?” The witchling growled, trying to fix her hair.

“I was going to say persistent, but that works too. Here, let me help,” Not waiting for an answer, Luz took the hair tie from Amity’s fingers and carefully pulled the short mint-green locks back. “So then, I guess we’ll all meet up at the school entrance after classes?”

Gus and Willow nodded. “We’ll see you there!” Gus picked up his now-empty tray and hurried off to class, but Willow stayed put for a moment, watching how Luz delicately wound the hair tie for Amity’s ponytail, unaware the girl had gone completely catatonic.

“There! All done!” Luz shot a grin at Willow and grabbed her notebook, closing the prophecy away. “See you gals after school!”

“See you then,” Willow waved and looked at Amity. “She’s gone to class now, you can move again.”

Almost mechanically, Amity nodded and turned away so Willow could not see just how red her face really was. “Abomination, rise.” The golem slowly stood from the floor and she took it’s arm, not realizing it’s height was shorter than normal, until Willow coughed, and she turned to see it had taken the form of Luz. “Augh! Abomination, reform!” Refusing to acknowledge the snickering she knew was Willow, Amity limped as quickly out of the cafeteria as she could, her face and ears burning. If Willow knew what was good for her, she wouldn’t say a word.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy 2nd of October Owl Family!
> 
> Of course I had to slip in Amity’s Abomination turning into Luz, we’re all waiting for that in the show! The temptation was just too good to pass up.
> 
> And what do you all think of the prophecy? What possible shenanigans will Luz get herself into next?
> 
> Leave a comment with your thoughts, and I’ll see you next Friday in chapter 3!


	4. Underneath the Moonlight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let the Lumity fluff begin.

* * *

  
Unfortunately, the trip to the library became a total bust. Not only did the librarian make no exception for Amity to borrow the Oracle books out of the building, he refused to even take them out of their protective cases.

“These books are the sole property of the Nine Covens, if you want to borrow them, you’ll need to get their permission.”

Amity did her best to not groan out of frustration. “But, isn’t there something you could do? You can trust me with them!”

“I’m sorry Ms. Blight, but this is a discussion you’ll need to have with a member of the Oracle Coven. It’s their trust you will need to ask for, not mine.”

“I understand,” Amity grabbed her school bag and stood, using the back of her chair for support. “Thank you, Giles.” Turning around, Amity walked to the door and pushed it open. Behind her, Giles cleared his throat and she glanced back.

“Will we be seeing you this weekend for Story Time? The children have been missing you.”

“Of course, I wouldn’t want to miss it for all of the Isles.” She let the door close behind her and limped as quickly as she could to where Luz, Gus, and Willow were waiting for her. It had been weeks since the Wailing Star, and neither Giles nor Gary had ever commented on if they noticed any evidence of what happened that night. Amity smiled to herself, realizing that night had been the start of her change of heart with Luz.

 _If only she knew just by how much._ Hearing the human’s voice, Amity walked around the corner of a bookcase where Luz was standing with one foot on the seat of her chair, posed dramatically as she read out of _The Good Witch Azura#2_ to an entranced Gus and Willow. For a moment, Amity hung back in the shadows to watch. How had she fallen so hard for such a goofy, awkward, human nerd? It was only a month ago she wanted to pummel Luz in the covention arena to prove just how little she knew of magic and how strong her own power was. Not only had she been proven wrong, but, in an unexpected manner, shown how big of a mistake pursuing the Emperor’s Coven would have been. And now, she could barely put two words together without panicking in Luz’s presence, overcome by emotions that boiled too close to the surface.

 _What was that word she used earlier? Stupida?_ Amity sighed, leaning against the bookcase. _Yup, that sounds about right._ A poster caught her eye and she walked over to study it:

_Fireshower Festival_

_Celebrate the coming of this rare interdimensional and celestial event with the Emperor’s Coven._

_Library hours will be shortened._

Amity’s eyes slowly widened and she reread the poster three more times and an idea slowly began to form. The date for the festival was set for the following weekend, she had only attended it twice before, and both times were when she was much younger, but she remembered just how grand it was, not to mention the turnout.

“Stars shall cross…” Could it be just a coincidence?

“- and Hecate stood over Azura, the tip of her staff pointed to the fallen witch’s chest. ‘Submit, Azura! Your power is no match for mine! It never was!’

‘Forget it!’ Azura said, her arms shaking from the effort to stand. ‘I’ll never cower to a fiend like you! Think of what you are doing Hecate! This is wrong!’ Hecate’s face split into a vicious grin, dark magic pulsing from her staff.

‘I don’t care.’ She thrust her hands out, forcing Azura to summon a shield of light -” Luz looked up from the page as Amity walked into the space and smiled. “Hey Amity! How’d it go?”

“Aaawww, Luz! Why’d you stop at the good part?” Gus moaned. “I need to know what happens!”

“Gus, we’re in a library,” Amity sighed, taking a set at the nearby table.”You can borrow that book if you want.”

Gus’ face flushed and he shook his head. “Nuh-uh! I don’t want anyone to know I _like_ this stuff! No offense, Luz.”

“None taken. I can borrow it out for you if you want, just remember to give it back to me.” Luz removed her foot from the seat and plopped down next to Amity. “So…? How’d it go?”

“Not as I’d hoped. Until I get some proof the Oracle Coven will allow me to borrow the books from their private collection, none of us can touch them. But,” she held up a hand. “I have an idea how we might work around this. It’s going to be tricky, but, you remember what happened during the Wailing Star a few weeks ago?”

Luz nodded. “It’s a little hard to forget what happened. Sorry again about your diary.”

The tips of Amity’s ears burned at the thought of what Luz would read should she open it now. “Well, next week, the Emperor’s Coven will be hosting the Fireshower Festival in the town center of Bonesbourough. Maybe it’s just coinciding with what the Oracle said to you, but, what if the timing of the festival has something to do with it? ‘Stars shall cross,’ If we can maybe find a way into the festival to watch the stars,”

“We can find out what the Oracle was telling Luz!” Willow finished.

“Eeeeeeeee!” Luz squealed and grabbed Amity in a tight hug. “Amity, you’re a genius! I don’t know what I’d do without you!”

 _Stop holding me for one thing! I can’t breathe!_ Managing to wriggle her way out of Luz’s surprisingly strong hold, even though she would have rather stayed, Amity cleared her throat. “Yes, well, with the Emperor’s Coven about, we’ll have to be discreet. That means no drawing attention to ourselves that day, no pranks, and absolutely no turning beloved children’s characters into monsters!”

“Hey! That was Ed’s doing! I was as much the victim as you were!”

“And Otabin,” muttered Amity.

Luz crossed her arms and pouted, but that only made her look cuter. “ _Lo siento!_ How bout that? An apology in a second language, you can’t go wrong with one.” She grinned when Amity rolled her eyes and the group started to make their way towards the exit. “So, what happens at this festival? It kinda sounds like a meteor shower, we have those in the Human World,” Her steps faltered, the memory of the burning portal flashing in her mind. “I mean, had, had those in the Human World.”

“Luz?” Amity reached for the human’s shoulder, but stopped. “What’s wrong?” The girl shook her head and smiled, her eyes briefly shining with what Amit would have sworn were tears, but one blink and they disappeared.

“Nothing! It’s nothing! So, we wait for this fire festival, sneak in while not being spotted by the Emperor’s Coven, and watch for a bunch of shooting stars for a clue. Doesn’t sound so bad. Oh!” Digging through her bag, Luz pulled out her Oracle notebook and flipped through the pages until she found what she was looking for. Ripping the page out, she folded it carefully and handed it to Amity. “You asked if you could copy down the prophecy to look yourself, so I made one for you. Azura doodles and all!”

Doing her best not to gape, Amity took the folded paper and carefully tucked it into her satchel. “Th-thank you! You really didn't have to do that, I was going to do that myself.”

“Like it was so hard to do? Besides, you’re the top student, so I trust you!”

Amity opened her mouth when someone behind her cleared their throat, and her jaws snapped shut.

“Excuse me, but do any of you four own an owl palisman?”

“Wha?” Luz stared at the librarian and looked through the open doors to see a familiar staff hovering in the air. “Owlbert?!”

“It’s been there for the past ten minutes. Please, keep your staff in the designated parking zone and away from the entrance. We don’t want any more people disturbed.”

“Yeah, yeah, sorry about that.” Luz darted out of the lobby and to the floating staff, grasping the smooth wood. “Owlbert, what the heck are you doing here?”

“Eda must be telling you time to come home,” Willow said, walking around her and nodding to the setting sun. “It’s getting late.”

Amity felt her breath catch in her throat. It was much later than she thought, her parents would be leaving soon for home, and she was farther away than them! “I have to get going too! If I’m caught, I’m dead! No matter what Ed and Em say!” She quickly started to draw a summoning circle for her Abomination, but Luz touched her wrist. Before she could even breathe, Amity found herself pulled forward and her legs straddling the owl staff, Luz guiding her arm around her waist.

“No friend of mine is going to be caught out past her curfew! I’ll make sure you get home before your parents even know!” Luz switched her hands to hold the staff, leaving Amity to quickly wrap both her arms around her narrow waist as they levitated from the ground, waving to Willow and Gus. “See you guys tomorrow! Hit it, Owlbert!” The owl hooted in response and, spreading his wings, rocketed into the sky, one passenger letting out a whoop of excitement while the other screamed bloody murder.

Of course, Amity was the one screaming, too frightened at the dizzying sensation of being so high up she forgot to be embarrassed for holding onto Luz. She’d never flown before, much less even thought of trying it! Luz had told her many times about Owlbert’s flying abilities and how fast he could go, but it was an experience she had not planned on having herself. Figures Luz would drag her into something like this. Squeezing her eyes shut so she could not see the shrinking shapes of Bonesborough, Amity tightened her hold on Luz as the wind whipped around her, pulling at her hair and her clothes. Eventually, the wind slowed, but the sensation of flight did not stop.

“Hey, Amity,”

She felt Luz gently nudge her with her elbow.

“Open your eyes, you have to see this.”

Amity shook her head, turning her face into Luz’s back. “No thanks, I’ll wait until my feet are back on solid ground.”

“Please? You really need to look. Here, would this help?”

Warm hands closed over Amity’s and she felt her heart skip at the realization Luz was holding her instead of the staff.

“There, I’ve got you.”

Slowly, reluctantly, Amity peeled one eye open and rotated her head. Both her eyes, and her mouth, widened. The whole of the Boiling Isles stretched out before them, the ancient titan’s skeletal body gleaming from the many lights of the kingdom and the silvery light of the rising moon. Amity’s gaze drifted from the kingdom to the Knee, seeing the expanse of snow and trees, and to the massive forest that dominated the lower half of the Isle, and where she knew Blight Manor sat. Far off in the distance, she could see the Rib Cage, where Emperor Belos’ fortress lurked.

“Wow,” Amity breathed. “It’s...beautiful.”

“My first full day on the Isle, Eda took me up here, to see things from a different perspective. Things get so crazy in the Boiling Isles, I sometimes forget just how amazing they can be.” Luz fidgeted on the staff, looking away from the skeletal land. “The night after we came back from the Conformitorium, I couldn’t sleep, too much on my mind. So, when I knew everyone else was in Dreamland, I took Owlbert and came up here to be alone, and to remember what Eda told me that day.”

Carefully, Amity leaned to the side so she could see Luz’s face. “What did she tell you?”

Luz was silent for a moment and Amity wondered if she didn’t want to tell her. Just as she was about to speak, Luz did.

“She told me that everyone wants to believe they’re ‘chosen.’ But, if we all waited around for some prophecy to make us special, we’d die waiting. And that’s why we have to choose ourselves.” She sighed. “I guess that’s why this whole Oracle thing bothers me so much. After all that’s happened, now I get some weirdo prophecy, and none of it makes sense! It’s like the world is trying to mock me for giving up my one ticket to go back home.” Her head dropped and she shrugged. “Oh well, I guess that’s the way it is? C’mon, Owlbert, let’s get Amity home.”

Amity silently groaned in protest when Luz freed her hands to take hold of the staff. She made sure to keep her eyes open for their descent, not wanting to miss a single detail. It was only too soon the peaked rooftop of Blight Manor came into view over the thick forest surrounding it and Amity did her best to ignore the painful reluctance growing in her chest that her flight with Luz was going to end very soon. However, the moment they passed the trees, her heart plunged like an anchor in her stomach as two silhouettes she knew all too well entered the massive doorway.

Her parents were home.

“Luz! Pull up! Pull up!”

Caught off guard, Luz jerked back on the staff and they came to a dead stop. “What? What happened?” Her words were immediately cut off by Amity slapping a hand over her mouth.

“Ssshh!!!” The witchling pointed to where the tall shadows of the Blights disappeared behind the closing shape of the door. “If we go to the front they’ll know I didn’t come straight home from school! If they find out I disobeyed them, they’ll lock me in my room forever!”

“Mina mike Mumimet?” Luz mumbled through Amity’s palm.

Instantly regretting her fingers against Luz’s mouth, Amity jerked her hand back, her skin tingling from the soft warmth of the human’s lips. Titan, she was hopeless. “What?”

Luz used her sleeve to wipe her mouth, a weird buzz lingering. “Kinda like Juliette?” She saw the blank look on the witchling’s face and shook her head. “Shakespeare character, never mind. Could we try to sneak you in?” She drummed her fingers on the staff, scanning the structure carefully. She had never actually been to Blight Manor before, except for the brief passing-by during the Moonlight Conjuring. It was huge. Gothic in design, there was no wonder the Blight name seemed to carry a weight for those who bore it, Amity especially. Most of the second story rooms appeared to only have windows, only one or two balconies jutted out from the sides.

“Hey, Amity, which one is your room?”

Amity frowned for a moment at the manor before pointing in the direction. “It’s that one, right over -”

“Perfect!”

Owlbert jolted onward, cutting Amity’s words off with a squeak, forcing her to again grab onto Luz. “Human! Are you trying to give me a heart attack?!”

“My bad!” Luz grinned lopsidedly and eased back on the owl staff, slowing to a halt to stop in front of the wide windows. Behind her, Amity drew a spell circle to lift the lock from the inside, her magic swarming the latch in a bright pink light. The moment the latch was undone, Luz rotated the staff for Amity to pull the windows open and drifted closer to the ledge. Clearing her throat, Luz tilted the back of the staff down for Amity to carefully slide off. “Thank you for flying Owlbert Airlines. Please make sure all luggage is properly accounted before disembarking and do consider us again in your future travels.”

“That is a very small possibility,” grumbled Amity, dusting off her uniform and fixing a pointed look at Luz. “You fly like a bat out of the Skull!”

Puffing her chest proudly, Luz crossed her arms and leaned back casually. “Well, I did learn from the best.” The grip her legs had on the staff wavered and Luz yelped as she slid backwards, landing on the windowsill with her legs sticking up in the air. “Pretend you didn’t see that.” She wheezed.

Amity couldn’t help but giggle, which only made Luz smile up at her, a suddenly curious look on her face. The soft silvery moonlight shimmered over her green hair and mingled with the bright amber of her eyes. Before Luz could process her thoughts, her mouth betrayed her.

“Ya know something? You're very pretty when you laugh.” The instant the words came out, Luz sat straight up and Amity’s giggle turned into a choked cough, both girls blushing as Luz backpedaled over her words, and feet.

“I mean, uh, you have look laugh so you should pretty more! No, your nice is laugh! I - that is... _adios novia!_ Augh!!!” Face so hot she could fry an egg, Luz practically vaulted off the ledge with Owlbert and zoomed away, refusing to look over her shoulder at an equally flushed, and slightly confused, Amity.

Leave it to her to attempt to compliment her friend and make it awkward. _Great job, Luz! Now she probably thinks you’re even more of a weirdo than she did before!_

The human could not have been further from the truth.

Amity stood at the window for a solid minute, both as an attempt to gather her bearings and to comprehend what had just happened. Did Luz actually just call her pretty?

“Amity?” The voice of her mother slide under the door to her room and she jumped, quickly slamming the windows shut.

“Um, just a moment!”

Ripping her school bag off her shoulder and chucking it across the room to her desk, Amity dove for her bed. She had just enough time to pluck the first book she could touch off the nightstand and open it before a quick, prompt knock came from her door.

“Yes?” She called, somehow finding a way to still her voice.

The door cracked open just enough for her to see the profiles of her mother and father.

“Amity? Are you doing your schoolwork?”

Her heart thundered against her ribcage as she fought to keep her hands from shaking. “Yes, of course.”

“Good. Edric and Emira tell us you have been taking care to not push your leg too much,” her father said. “Does it still hurt?”

Like she’d stuck it bare skin in the boiling rain. “No, Father, I have been careful to show no sign of discomfort.” She held her breath at the silence that followed, her eyes staring at her parents over the edge of the book like it was a shield.

“Excellent. Good night, Amity.”

She waited for the door to click shut and the footsteps to fade away before falling back on the bed with relief. That was too close. As much as Amity did not want to admit it, she knew she was going to owe Ed and Em for covering. Sighing, Amity carefully sat back up and swung her feet over the edge of the bed, cautiously putting her weight on her feet. The throbbing in her right leg was no better, but at least it wasn’t any worse, enough for her to limp through the routine of her evening.

School work was nothing but second nature to her, most of it already completed while she had waited in the library to meet with Giles, only a couple chapters left of her Advanced Abominations text book to read, but those she would finish before going to bed. She tried to interest herself in some of the leftover dinner Emira had set aside for her, but she couldn't bring herself to eat.

_“You’re very pretty when you laugh.”_

Luz had never called her pretty before. Maybe, just maybe, that meant she had feelings for her too? Amity shook her head, shoving that thought away as fast as it had occurred. No, Luz only saw her as a friend, her offer of going to Grom had solidified that.

_“That’s what friends do.”_

Realizing she could not touch the food, Amity carefully wrapped it back up and tucked it away in the massive cold storage, ice glyphs illuminating as she closed the door to signal the food would keep at a safe temperature. She wondered what Luz would think of it and if the humans did anything like this to keep their food as well?

“Stop thinking about it,” she hissed under her breath and walked out of the kitchen to make her way back to her room. “She’s a human from another world. You’re a Blight. It’s never going to happen.”

Closing her door behind her, Amity walked to her bed and sat on the edge of the mattress. She looked out her window at the moon spilling into her room like a silver spotlight. On the wide seat sat a light green box, ‘A’ painted on the lid. With a twirl of her finger and a flash of magic, Amity set the summoned box in her lap and lifted the lid to look at the coronet kept inside. Flower-petal pink gems shimmered from the simple golden band, all created from the magic symbolising Amity and Luz defeating their fears.

 _If only that were true._ Sighing, Amity fell back on her pillow, staring up at the ceiling, setting the box next to her on the mattress. The only reason Grom was beaten was because of them combining their abilities, a spur-of-the-moment dance that Amity both cherished and regretted. In those few moments, she had hoped Luz might actually clue in to the fact it was her she wanted to ask out, but, no. They were friends and nothing more.

Amity watched the shadows cast by her window panes move across her ceiling, wavering as if they too were dancing. As she focused on the thin shapes, the light slowly began to fade, her vision tunneling until only a small spotlight of the moon was all she could see, sliding across the surface of the darkness.

Then, the spotlight moved to shine down on her. Startled, Amity looked around, but all she could see was the surrounding blackness, a deafening silence hanging in the air. She hugged her arms to her chest, a shiver wracking her body.

_“You are a Blight.”_

The voice whispered in her ears, but when Amity turned her head, no one was there.

_“You must act as one. No weakness, only power. Never trust and never love.”_

“No,” Amity covered her ears to block out the voice, but it persisted.

_“You think you could love anyone as useless as a human? You believe she could love someone as twisted as you?”_

From the darkness an Abomination rose, its features warping to resemble Amity’s. The witchling gasped, falling backwards as the twisted duplicate stumbled to her.

“ _See yourself for the monster that you are, Amity Blight. How could anyone love you if you can’t love yourself?”_

Tears burned in Amity’s eyes and she curled into a ball, her hands clamped over her head. “Go away!”

She heard the groaning of the Abomination as it approached her and felt the clammy hand against her back - and then nothing. Amity remained perfectly still, afraid the creature had changed tactics and was waiting for her to drop her guard, her eyes shut tight with her hands protecting her head. She felt something, a presence, approach her from behind and she winced, bracing for the nightmare’s return. Instead, golden light filtered through her eyelids and she felt a warm hand touch her own.

“Amity?”

Her eyes popped open and she spun around.

Luz was kneeling beside her, her hand held out to the witchling, a soft smile on her lips. Held in her other hand was a small orb of light. “It’s okay, I’m here.”

Amity stared dumbfounded, her hand lifting to settle into Luz’s, allowing the girl to lightly tug her to her feet. In an instant, the darkness around them melted into an all too familiar clearing where a massive tree stood, light-pink leaves drifting down from its branches. The harsh spotlight had softened into the alluring glow of the moon, still fixed on the girls. For a brief moment, Luz looked just as confused as Amity when she took in the surroundings, but then her furrowed brow eased and she smiled.

“May I have this dance, m’lady?”

Her brown eyes shined in the moonlight, causing Amity’s stomach to flip. If this was a dream, her psyche really loved torturing her. Then again, if this was a dream, why not enjoy it?

Matching Luz’s smile with her own, Amity dipped into a mock curtsey. “Of course, my fearless champion.” Material rustled in her hand and she nearly jumped when her night shirt and shorts suddenly changed into the dress she had worn at Grom. The same instance happened with her dream Luz, who did not seem fazed in the least. No surprise there.

With the same boldness as before in their fight with Grom, Amity pulled Luz to her, a soft music rising up around them from an unknown source, and the pair slowly waltzed around the clearing. Amity stared into Luz’s eyes, fierce amber locked with chocolate brown. Everything she wanted to say, the overwhelming surge of adoration, the sweet sting of love, wanted to bubble to the surface. Where her dream Luz had come from she did not know, but how could it be that even in her dreams, she still could not express how she felt?

_“You are a Blight. You will never be able to love.”_

Her heart shuddered in her chest, drowning the warmth of emotions. She was a Blight and Luz was a human.

“Luz?” Her voice shook.

They stopped moving and Luz looked at her with concern. “What’s wrong?”

She wanted those kind eyes to stop staring at her as if they could see into her soul, to see the truth that was so terrifyingly close to being revealed. Was it so bad? To feel so strongly for someone even if it could never be? For that someone to love you back even if you were a monster? Tears pricking her eyes, Amity gripped Luz’s hands and, before she could even stop herself, wrapped her arms around her in a tight hug, her face tucked into the crook of her neck. She felt Luz stiffen at the sudden gesture, worried she would step away, but then Amity felt her arms slide up her back, securing her.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

* * *

“Let go of me!”

A pillow whacked Luz in the face and she jumped, the fragile dream shattering like a delicate vase. “What the-? King! Why’d you do that?”

The demon growled at Luz as she spat feathers from her mouth. “You were hugging me too tight!”

“Well, sorry! I thought you liked cuddles?” A tiny feather tickled Luz’s nose and she brushed it off.

“Not when you start squeezing the stuffing out of me and roll over me! What the heck were you dreaming about?”

Luz blinked. “I...don’t know.” She scratched her head and a couple more feathers flitted into the air. “I remember I was fighting off the shadow warlocks from _Good Witch Azura #4_ , and then I was…” What did happen? She was fighting the shades, Eda and Azura at her side, then, suddenly… “I was dancing with Amity. Like at Grom, but it was different. I actually felt her, not like a normal dream where you touch things but they're not really there, I could actually feel her. It was so real…”

And so was the warmth that had spiked through her chest when Amity hugged her. Luz shook her head, rubbing her eyes. She really should stop reading fan fics before going to bed.

“Meh, you were dreaming.” King waved his paw dismissively before curling up at the foot of the sleeping bag. “Dreams are not real, no way could you actually have felt any of that.”

“But, it was real!” Luz whined, but the demon was already asleep. She slumped back on the mattress with a sigh. Why did it feel so real? And why would Amity act that way in her dream? Maybe what she said at Blight Manor was starting to get to her. Amity had wanted to ask out someone else to Grom, she was scared of being rejected. But Luz, the good friend she believed herself to be, would never leave Amity feeling alone, even if it was just them going as friends. Besides, she was a human and Amity was a witch. There were some things that could only remain in dreams.

Against her chest, the Portal Key eye pulsed softly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here is where the fun begins.
> 
> Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, I had fun writing the scene for Luz and Amity’s flight! Eda’s words about waiting to be special touched me back in Witches Before Wizards, I figured it would fit perfectly to sum up Luz’s feelings with the Oracle. The dance scene was short lived, but, isn’t that how all dreams tend to go?
> 
> Speaking of dreams, Luz and the Portal Key. Is it’s power truly gone?
> 
> Let me know in the comments! Those are what keep me writing, and sane during these crazy times. Alright, enough from me, see you next week!
> 
> Update:  
> Hello again! Keep an eye out for a little something special I’ll be cooking up in the spirit of Halloween. It will be written out of context from this story, to avoid any confusion, but will take place post YBOS. Expect:  
> Ghoulish  
> Hauntings  
> Of  
> Supernatural  
> Trickery &  
> Superstition


	5. Reality is an Illusion, the Universe is a Hologram

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For all you Gravity Falls fans out there

* * *

_  
The door folded down from nothingness and creaked open, splitting the darkness with a blinding white light. Beyond it formed a scene of a bright green forest in full summer glory, the grass drifting gently in the breeze as the branches swayed lazily from their trunks. Luz reached for the brass knob, her fingers brushing the cool metal handle, but she paused. If she walked through that door, she would abandon everything she had come to know, everyone she had come to care about. And, a family she never expected to find._

_With a resounding slam, the door shut itself and exploded in a burst of flames, the glyph for fire glowing on its surface. Luz shielded her face from the inferno, tears stinging her eyes as she watched the home she had known for her whole life burn away. When the last of the portal collapsed in a heap of ashes, so did Luz’s legs, and she crumpled to the ground, covering her face as a sob shook her body._

_“Te amo, mami,” she gasped, hugging herself as the tears dripped from her chin into the blackness. “Lo siento.”_

_She didn’t know what else to do, she could not leave the portal with Belos and whatever it was he had been planning. Titan’s plan or not, he was a psychopath and Luz just could not hand over access to an unsuspecting world, her home. Maybe it was a stupid move, but, what else could she do?_

_“And now, I may never see you again, mami.”_

_Hunching forward, Luz peeled her eyes open and something shifted into view. It was the key to the portal, still hanging from her neck on the chain Eda had given her. The thick yellow eye flashed in the light, but when Luz looked around, all she saw was darkness. She looked down at the key, but the eye was still reflecting light. Or, was it the source?_

_Sniffling, Luz wiped at her eyes and grasped the key to hold it up, brushing the eye carefully with her thumb. She knew the button would not work, she had tried it already. To the touch, the key felt warm, pulsating softly like a very tiny heart. Luz got to her feet and the warmth became stronger, not so much, but just enough._

_“What?”_

_Turning in a slow circle, Luz watched the yellow eye begin to brighten, then dim, then brighten again. It took a moment for Luz to realize the warmth, and brightness, intensified when she faced a specific direction. This was interesting. Looking ahead, Luz shrugged and began to walk, though she felt like she was going literally nowhere, as everywhere she looked was darkness. All that changed when she practically walked face-first into the door. A dark violet -dyed wood, cracked and peeling, its surface covered in jagged splinters, a single keyhole in its center, and no handle. By this point, the key was so warm it was almost close to burning, but Luz hardly felt it, her eyes glued to the mysterious door._

_What was this and why did the portal key seem to want it?_

_“Time to see what’s behind door number two,” muttered Luz, and slid the key into the hole. As if on its own accord, the key turned in her hand and, with an ominous creaking out of every scary movie Luz had dared to watch, the door opened. What she saw beyond, she could not believe._

* * *

“A bunch of stairs and ladders?” Eda raised her eyebrows, staring at her giddy apprentice over the rim of her coffee mug. “All leading to different doors? Kid, I told you to lay off the Happy Juice before going to bed, it messes with your brain.”

Luz’s cheeks flushed red with embarrassment. “I’m serious, Eda! It all seemed so real! I’m telling you, the Portal Key still works! Just, not the way it did before. I mean, I don’t know if it will work to get back to my home, but it must have shown me this for a reason! Maybe it has to do with what the Oracle told me in class!”

Eda held up her hand to cut off Luz’s stream of words and set down her mug. “Look kid, you’re upset about giving up the Portal, and I don’t blame you for what you did. Trust me, I would have done the same thing. But, stairs and doors? Sounds like you just had a bad dream.” Glancing at the time, the Owl Lady stood and walked to Luz, taking her shoulders to look in her eyes. “Now, enough talk, get your butt moving, unless you’ve changed your mind and decided to quit school for the Bad Girls Coven?”

A small smile tugged at Luz’s lips and Eda grinned, giving her a quick, albeit slightly awkward, hug, and pushed her towards the door. “Now get going, Mama’s gotta get some potions made if we’re gonna stay in the lap of luxury. See ya tonight!”

Luz sighed and shouldered her bag. “See you tonight Eda. Later King!” Pausing with the door halfway closed behind her, Luz turned to lean back into the house. “Goodbye, Lilith!”

“Wow, you made the cut,” Eda snorted, scooping her mug off the table for a sip when the door closed. “Guess that means she’s starting to get used to you.”

From the living room doorway, Lilith sighed. “It’s better than her hating me.”

“Oh, she still hates you, but she’s being nice about it.”

Lilith rolled her eyes and walked into the kitchen as her sister sat back down and put her feet on the table. “Edalyn, please don’t use the table for a footstool, we eat off that.”

“My Owl House, my rules.”

“You’re such a child.”

Eda simply shrugged and took a long pull from her mug, savoring the tangy Apple Blood. The two sisters remained quiet for a few minutes as Lilith set a kettle on the stove. It was not until Lilith had the steaming cup in her hands that she sat across from Eda and gave her a fixed look that she knew her younger sister would not be able to ignore. Sure enough, Eda shifted in her seat, turned to the side, then the other, and sighed.

“I hate it when you do that.”

Lilith quirked an eyebrow. “Do what?”

“That!”

“I’m only sitting here,”

“Well, it’s annoying!” Eda crossed her arms and looked away with the pouty face of a grumpy child. “I’m guessing you heard what Luz said?”

* * *

The older witch nodded slowly. “I did. Edalyn, you can’t hide these things forever. The girl needs to know.”

“Not yet, Lily, not after what she’s gone through.”

“If what she saw in the Dreamscape was true, then we don’t have much of a choice. The Fireshower is in one week, who knows what it could bring? Or, who? Luz has to be prepared.”

Eda slammed her palm on the table. “Luz just sacrificed her only physical route back home. The Dreamscape is a dangerous place for those who’ve lost their way, and if Luz finds out what she could really do with it, she could be gone forever!” The Owl Lady leaned back in her chair and peered into her now empty mug. “Let’s just let her enjoy this nice little break for a bit, then, I promise, I’ll tell her about the key.”

Despite the skeptical look she had on her face, Lilith sighed and took a sip of her tea. “Alright Edalyn, but, if anything happens, we tell the human. Deal?”

“Deal.”

* * *

The moment Luz approached the entrance to Hexside, she knew something was off. Why was most of the student body clustered in one large group outside, and so close to the start of school? Jogging up to the mass of bodies, Luz briefly stood up on her toes to look for Willow and Gus, or Amity. Spotting Willow’s thick head of hair, Luz politely pushed her way through the crowd to reach her friend.

“Willow! What’s going on? Why’s everyone outside?”

Willow glanced around frantically and pulled Luz deeper into the crowd until they were tucked beside the stairs that led up to the school, where Gus was waiting.

“Seriously,” Luz spoke slowly, looking over her shoulder. “What’s going -” A burst of blue smoke engulfed her body, blocking her vision. “On?”

“Ssshhh!” Gus hissed, an Illusion circle fading from his hand. “Don’t move, or they’ll see you!”

Luz blinked. “They who? What the heck is going on? And...why do my arms look like branches?” Indeed, what should have been her arms were two scrawny branches complete with a thin mass of leaves. Luz looked down to see her entire lower torso was nothing now but an extremely narrow tree trunk. If she had to guess, her upper half probably had the perfect look of a young sapling. “Gus, am I a tree?”

“Sorry Luz,” Willow scratched the back of her neck. “But, when Amity told us the news, we knew we had to hide you from them.”

“Them...who?”

Instead of an answer, Willow pointed up the stairs to where a small group of figures had appeared. Luz turned her head, trying her best to maintain what she hoped was a tree-like position.

“Uh-oh,”

Four guards dressed in the uniforms of the Emperor’s Coven stood at perfect attention, their avian masks gazing out at the waiting students. Behind them stood Principal Bump, deep in conversation with a witch Luz couldn't make out dressed in the same Coven getup, only she could see their mask tucked under their arm.

“They showed up only a few minutes before you did, asking to have the whole school emptied for a full search.” Gus whispered. “Do you think they found out you go here and have come to take you in?”

“I don’t know Gus,” hissed Willow. “Why else would the Emperor’s Coven show up at the same school Luz goes to?”

“It’s because there was a break in,”

The three whipped around as Amity pushed her way through the crowd, once again her Abomination close behind her for support.

“Why would someone want to break into Hexside? To steal Boscha’s grugby trophies?”

Amity stared at the skinny tree that had spoken in Luz’s voice and looked at Willow, who pointed at Gus. “His idea.”

“I’m sure it was,” Amity took another brief look at the Luz-tree, shaking her head. In truth, she was okay to avoid looking at Luz for a bit after her dream. Her hands still tingled at the memory of their dance and Luz holding her so tightly, only to vanish. That made waking up to her alarm as great a relief as it was painful. At least she was not visited by the cruel voice again. “Whatever they were after, they made a huge mess in Principal Bump’s office.”

Luz blinked. “Oof, I’ll bet he wasn’t happy with that. But, why would someone do that?”

“I don’t know,” Glancing up at the Coven members, Amity leaned closer to the small group to whisper. “Whatever it was, the Emperor’s Coven wanted to investigate. I heard my parents talking this morning about an attempted theft at the Conformitoriun, for information from another dimension.”

Gus swallowed. “Oh...that’s not good...and too much of a coincidence with the Fireshower.” A branch waved in his face.

“Seriously, what’s with this Fireshower thing? Back home, it just meant a bunch of comets flying through the sky.” Luz shrugged at her friends. “What happens on the Boiling Isles?”

Two pairs of eyes, and a mass of leaves, immediately were trained on Amity and she bit back a sigh. As much as she enjoyed showing off her hard earned knowledge, there were times when being the only one who had the answer was annoying. This was one of those times.

“The Fireshower, or Firestorm as some call it, is more than a bunch of stars sailing through the sky. It's when a mass of comets burn so hot and so bright when they pass over that they tear open the fabric of reality and, for a few moments, we see a different grouping of stars.” To demonstrate her point, Amity drew a spell circle where an image appeared of a thick stream of comets burning in the sky and, to Luz’s complete shock, _tore open_ the air. There was no other way to describe it. One moment, the sky was full of stars, and the next, it split open to reveal an entirely new sky.

“In the two times I’ve seen the Firestorm, the stars changed patterns. It’s as if the dimensions they come from shift,” Amity closed the circle, shaking her head. “I’ve tried to research where the stars are from, but very little information exists because it is such a rare event.”

“Now I get why it’s a big deal here,” Luz glanced back up at the Coven members to see if they were wrapping it up. She was getting tired of being a tree. “Stars crossing over from...wait... _that’s it!_ ”

The witches jumped at her sudden outburst.

“What’s it, Luz?” Willow adjusted her glasses when the sapling rotated to look at her.

“Worlds collide, stars shall cross. That’s what the Oracle told me in the prophecy, so whatever it was telling me has to do with the Firestorm! It’s not just some group of stars crossing the sky, they’re coming from another world! And that’s not all, you guys would not believe what I dreamed about last night!”

Before Luz could go any further, footsteps down the stairs cut her off as the Emperor’s Coven made their way from the school. At the head of the group was the helmet-less witch, a tall red-haired man whose green cat-like eyes lazily surveyed the waiting students. Suddenly, they shifted and pinned Amity, sending a jolt of fear through Luz’s heart. His face then split into a wide grin and he gestured for his companions to keep going, quickly dropping the uniformed march for an excited jog.

“Amity!”

For some odd reason, Luz did not like the fond smile the newcomer wore as he walked up to their little group, or the surprised blush dusting Amity’s cheeks.

“Cyrus? What are you doing here?”

The witch, Cyrus, leaned against the wall casually and regarded Amity. “I was sent by the Emperor’s Coven to lead the investigation. Couldn’t pass up the opportunity to see my alma mater, and I knew you and the twins would still be attending. How are Ed and Em doing by the way? Still getting into trouble?”

Luz frowned at Cyrus from behind Gus’ illusion, wishing he would just stop talking to Amity and go back to the Coven. He wasn’t going to get anywhere with his investigation if he kept talking to Amity. Didn’t he know they had class to get to? Or maybe go trim that perfect beard of his?

“I think your tree friend is afraid I’m keeping you from her.”

All the air whoosed from Luz’s lungs. Wait, what?

“Tree friend?!” Amity’s face went bright red and she looked over her shoulder from Luz-tree back to Cyrus. “I-um,”

Cyrus held up a gloved hand. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to say anything to my crew. Besides, any apprentice of the Owl Lady is an ally of mine. So, you can drop the illusion now.”

Too stunned to say or do anything else, Luz stepped out of the illusion, breaking the image, her face a carefully guarded mask. “How did you -”

“Know you were there? Call it a gift,” Cyrus tapped his forehead where a single eye tattoo sat in the center of a triangle. “Mind reading, I’ve had it since I was a witchling. It’s not terribly strong, I can only read one mind at a time, but don’t ask me to read your pets’ minds, beasts don’t work for me.” He turned a sly grin back to Amity. “Well Amity? Should I introduce myself, or would you do the honors?”

“Oh! Right!” Clearing her throat, Amity gestured to the witch. “Everyone, meet Cyrus Eldritch of the Emperor’s Coven. His whole family specializes in Oracle magic, and Cyrus is the youngest of his siblings to have joined the Emperor’s Coven.”

“And I’m hoping you beat my record for being the youngest recruit.” Ruffling Amity’s hair, he smiled at Luz. “So, Luz Noceeda,”

“ _Noceda_ ,”

“Apologies, _Luz Noceda_ , you’ve been studying all forms of magic, that is quite the extraordinary feat for a human. If only the emperor was more open to the idea of new magics, then there may actually be peace.” He chuckled at the wide-eyes staring at him. “While I serve our emperor faithfully, I do wonder just how it would be with newer magics available for the Isles to share. Who knows? Perhaps a human was just the thing we needed?”

A yell from behind made Cyrus turn around to the waiting Coven members and he sighed, taking his helmet from under his arm. “Duty calls, so I must be off. It was great to see you again, Amity, we should bump into each other again soon. And, don’t worry about your human. Her secret is safe.” Cyrus secured his helmet over his head and bowed to the group. Snapping at attention, Cyrus nodded and, pivoting on his heel, strode off to his awaiting coven members.

“What the heck was that about?”

Amity grimaced and turned back to Luz. “Yeah, sorry about that. Cyrus is a nice guy and a powerful witch, but he can sometimes be a little…odd.” Her eyes widened at the confused frown Luz had. “Not that I think odd is bad! It’s actually a good quality in witches, and humans! I mean,” she cleared her throat to regain control. “What were you going to say, Luz? Something about a dream?”

There was a hopeful edge in Amity’s tone, but Luz did not hear it, her focus completely on the departing figure of Cyrus on a coven staff. There was absolutely no reason for disliking him, he seemed like a perfectly nice guy, even if he did get her name wrong, and he had been friendly with Amity. So, why did the thought of that curl her hands into fists and make her stomach tighten?

With a sigh, Luz shrugged her shoulders and walked past her friends to the school entrance. “Never mind, it wasn’t all that important. We’d better get going if we don’t want to be late.”

The light in Amity’s eyes fell, along with her smile. “Oh, okay, see you later?” Her answer was a brief wave over the shoulder as Luz jogged into the wide halls, and she followed, at a much slower pace.

Behind, Willow pinched the bridge of her nose and shook her head. “This is not looking good for them.”

Gus frowned at her. “What? What’s not good for who?” He nearly jumped back at the intense look Willow fixed on him.

“You don’t know?” Willow rolled her eyes at the blank stare from her friend. “Remember what Amity said to us in the greenhouse a few weeks ago, when Luz challenged Boscha to the grudgby match?”

“I was emotionally distracted, “

“Gus, we wrapped two flags with floral tape. This was something far more serious.”

The younger witch puffed out his narrow chest. “Those flags have been withHexside for many battles, cheered on the Banshees through every victory, and, need I remind you how they led Luz on to win back Owlbert from the Bat Queen? Don’t you tell me they’re not serious!”

It took all of Willow’s control not to strangle her friend. Might as well say it outloud to someone, even if their only true love was for a couple of sports pennants. “Amity has a crush on Luz.”

Gus stared at Willow for a solid moment, only to double over with laughter. “That’s ridiculous! Amity? A crush on Luz? _Our_ Luz? That’s not possible! Besides, she was going to ask someone out to Grom, but didn’t get the chance when she was picked to be queen.” He stopped laughing when Willow crossed her arms and raised her eyebrows, and the realization slowly clicked into place. “Oh...oh...oh! Amity’s got a crush on -”

“Sssssssssshhhhhhh!!!!” Willow clamped her hand over Gus’ mouth, earning a few curious stares from some nearby students. “Do you remember what her parents did to split up our friendship? How do you think they’ll react if they find out she has feelings for the human apprentice of the Owl Lady? Who is also a girl?” Neither of them wanted to entertain that thought, shuddering at the possibilities that managed to creep in. “We’ll have to keep this a secret.”

“For how long?” Gus shoved Willow’s hands off his face and rubbed his cheeks. “Does Luz know? Right, don’t answer that, it was rhetorical.” Even Gus could see that Luz, as much as he enjoyed her friendship, was rather clueless in every social situation, going so far as to make it all the more awkward whenever she attempted to fix it. “So, what do we do?”

Willow thought for a moment, rubbing her chin. “I’ve got third period plant class with Luz, and you have second period spelling class with Amity. They both seemed like they had something to say, maybe we can try to get them to talk and, if all goes well, meet together for lunch? We still need to figure out that prophecy Luz has and what to do to get ready for the Fireshower Festival.”

Plan set in motion, the two witches took off to their respective classes, ready to do justice for their unsuspecting friends.

When Amity found her seat for Advanced Spelling class, she was surprised Gus slid onto the stool next to her, a curiously wide grin splitting his face. “Heya Amity, how’s it falling?”

She stared at him blankly. “Don’t you mean ‘how’s it hanging?’” That was how Luz usually said it.

“Oh, um, right!” Scratching his neck, Gus fumbled with his book and papers, trying his best to watch Amity out of the corner of his vision. She certainly wasn’t acting like she was smitten for anyone, let alone Luz, taking out her own notebook and texts for the day’s lesson. But again, Willow was a very observant witch, more so than she was given credit for, so Gus could not just discount her words immediately. He needed to test this theory, but his way. Not until they were halfway through the lesson did he get an idea, when the teacher asked them to break down the words used for a series of spells.

“Some witches use incantations to cast powerful spells that remain for a long duration of time,” the professor surveyed the class. “Can anyone tell me another word used for light?”

Gus’ hand shot up. “I can give you two! There is the Latin term: _lux_ , and, in the human language, Spanish, there is _luz_. Just like our own human exchange student, right?”

The professor eyed him with veiled amusement. “Yes, very good Agustus. Now, can anyone tell me another word used for fire?”

Dropping back into his seat, Gus took a quick glance at Amity. Her eyes were fixed on her notebook, but her pencil was frozen mid-sentence where she had been writing down what he had said, halfway through Luz’s name.

“That’s u-z,” he flinched when those amber eyes snapped to him and Gus quickly began to scribble his own notes, suddenly feeling like a grubhog lying down before an angry hawk. Luckily, Amity did not say anything to him for the rest of the class, but when the bell rang for third period, she about flew out of the room. Guss could only assume her leg was feeling better.

Luz, on the other hand, suspected nothing when she entered the greenhouse. She and Willow always partnered together for class and she let Willow take the lead for their assignments, trusting the other witch to know exactly what to do. So, when the teacher asked for them to feed their Venus Rose Traps, gigantic gaping mouths that reminded Luz of an old Broadway musical, she fell right into rhythm with her friend.

“Luz, could you hand me the Nightshade Mist?”

“You got it,” Reaching into the nearby cabinet, Luz pulled out the glass spray bottle full of violet liquid.

Willow carefully spritzed the blood-red petals with the liquid, droplets settling like stars on the plant. “So, Cyrus seemed nice.”

Something like a grunt came out of Luz’s throat. “Sure, for a member of the Emperor’s Coven.” She didn’t see the sideways glance from Willow.

“You don’t think so?”

“I dunno,” Luz shrugged, flipping through her plant book absently. “I guess. He kinda stood a little too close to Amity. What was up with that?”

“Can you give me the hex trimmers?” Not looking, Willow accepted the abnormally large clippers from Luz, who had to heft it with both hands, but Willow easily held it up to the extra leaves hanging from the Rose Trap branches. “The Eldritches are a very well known family and have been friends of the Blights for years, just as wealthy and just as powerful.”

Luz whistled. “So Amity isn’t the only one with controlling parents. Are all the families like that?”

Willow shrugged. “Aside from the Emperor’s Coven, no, so a lot of pressure is put on them to keep up the status.” She had seen Luz’s eyes shift at the mention of Amity and Cyrus knowing each other as children. Time to do a little digging. “Cyrus is four years older and always acted like he had a crush on Amity, but she never saw him as anything but a friend, an older brother at the most.” There was a soft glimmer in Luz’s gaze when she looked back to her.

“Really? But he’s so…”

“Handsome?”

“Pff, nah, I wasn’t going to say that,” Luz waved her hand and started to busy herself with the Nightshade Mist. “I mean, why wouldn’t Amity like him? Those broad shoulders and chest, square jaw, neatly trimmed red hair, scruffy chin, jade-green eyes, who wouldn’t think he was perfect?”

It was all Willow could do to bite the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing, and it still took her a few moments before she could breathe without a snicker. “Why don’t you ask her, then?” She waited a beat for Luz to stop what she was doing and slowly rotate to look at her.

“Ask who...what?”

“Ask Amity if she likes Cyrus?”

Luz frowned. “Why would I do that? Remember, she had someone she wanted to ask out to Grom, and I don’t think it was him.” There was a weird sense of relief when the words left Luz’s mouth, but she ignored it. “I don’t want to be responsible for one of those sappy anime love triangles! Besides, why should I care about who my friends want to be with?”

“Luz, you’re spritzing too much mist on the plant.”

“It was thirsty.”

Willow would have begged to differ, but she chose to stay quiet, instead switching her focus to the Hop-Pop Peppers, fang-shaped fruits linked together on a thick vine. While most of their skin was a deep orange, the tips were a bright yellow, looking as if they had been dipped into a bowl of dye. Because of their extremely spicy flavor, very few witches ate them, reserving the peppers for an ingredient in potions. Selecting a small set of trimmers, Willow carefully reached to the string-like stem to snip one off the vine.

“I danced with Amity last night.”

Willow’s grasp slipped and the thin blades sliced through the pepper’s flesh, sending a burst of acidic juice into the air. Both girls yelped, narrowly missing the steaming droplets.

“You _what?!_ ”

“In a dream!” Luz hissed, grabbing a cleaning rag to wipe at the stray pepper juice, blaming the acidic bite in the air for her warm cheeks. “That’s what I was going to tell you guys before Mr. Perfect walked over.”

“That you...danced with Amity?” Willow could not contain the thrill in her voice and she leaned closer to Luz.

“Well, I was actually going to skip that part,” Rubbing her hands, Luz glanced around the greenhouse to make sure the remaining students were still engrossed in their work. “Last night I had two dreams: the first one started out like any normal dream for me, fighting side by side with Azura and Eda. Don’t judge me!”

Willow held up her hands.

“But then I got this weird, I don’t know, tug, like I needed to be somewhere else. The next thing I know, I’m in this pitch-black room and Amity is on the ground, crying.” Seeing her friend so frail and vulnerable had torn Luz’s heart in half. “Whatever was bothering her went away when I appeared, and then we...well...remember how I told you we beat Grom?”

“Yes,” Willow was doing her best to not burst with anticipation. This was looking promising.

Luz tapped her knuckles together and shyly looked at the floor. “I...asked her to dance. No fear demon, no epic dance fight, just a dance. I didn’t know what else to do to make her feel better! And that was the craziest part of this whole thing, I could think and feel everything! Like, I was actually there!”

“Uh-huh, and what happened during this dance?” They could focus on the prophecy later, Willow wanted the good stuff!

“Well, it was a dance so we...you know…” Why was it so hard to give Willow the details? Swallowing, Luz continued. “I think we were waltzing, it was different from the first time. Amity then stopped and hugged me, like, really tight. And then…”

All that was keeping Willow from falling forward was her hands on the table. “Yes…?”

“King creamed me with a pillow and I woke up. I was chewing on griffon feathers for ten minutes after that.” Luz rubbed her neck, feeling the Portal Key chain and gave it a light tug. “After that, when I went back to sleep, I was the one in the darkness. I watched the door to my world go up in flames, but then this thing,” she pulled the key out from her collar to show Willow. “Started to warm up and pulse, like a heart, and it led me to this...other door. When I unlocked it, I saw a whole bunch of doors, all with these ladders and stairs leading to them, but the weirdest part was they were floating.”

“Floating?”

“Yeah, in this weird dimension looking place. I don’t know how else to say it,” Luz looked at the key resting in her palm. “I tried to talk to Eda about it, but she blew me off, saying it wasn’t that important and I was just having a bad dream. But, I know what I saw! I even opened one of the other doors to see what was behind them!”

“And?”

“Nothing, just blackness.” Tucking the key back under her collar, Luz shook her head and, to Willow’s surprise, grabbed her hands. “But Willow, do you realize what this means?”

Willow shook her head, trying to follow where Luz was taking this.

“I think this means I can control what happens in my dreams! Just like the Oracle said! ‘Turn the Key, O’er the Dream be lost.’ It must have been talking about this! Isn’t that cool?” Her grin slipped at the look of concern in her friend’s eyes. “What? What’s wrong?”

“It’s just,” Willow shook her head. “Why would it show you this after the Portal was destroyed? Why hasn’t Eda told you about this before? And the part of the dream being lost? I don’t think this is just a simple walk in the Dreamscape, Luz, there’s something else going on.”

She had a point, Luz couldn’t argue with that. Plus, Eda had been very quick to dismiss the subject. That had bothered Luz and now she wanted to know why. What was it about the Portal Key she wasn't being told? Did Eda always know it could do more than open a portal to the Human World? If the key had shown her the door to her dreams, then that meant she could go in and out of other dreams, right?

“And, what about that dream of you and Amity?” Willow continued on as if reading her thoughts. “That doesn’t sound like your dream, it sounds like you went _into_ Amity’s dream.”

“But, why would she just go along with it like that?” Luz raked her fingers through her hair. She needed to find out what was going on, Coven books or not.

An uneasy feeling settled in Willow’s stomach as a grin slowly spread across Luz’s face. She knew that look, she had seen it many times before and always right before they found themselves in a heap of trouble. “Luz, why are you smiling like that?”

“Oh, no reason.” Luz tapped the tips of her fingers together schemingly. “I was just wondering, when was the last time you all had a sleepover?”


	6. No More Omnitonic

“No, no, no, and no!”

Lilith sighed heavily and pinched the bridge of her nose, trying to wrest away the start of what she knew was going to become a headache. “Edalyn, this is serious. You need to at least think about it.”

“I have already thought about it and that’s why I’m saying no!” Eda glared at Lilith from across the cauldron set in the dead center of the table, a spoon held aloft in one hand and a clear square bottle in the other, it’s contents a writhing mass of pinkish-red smoke. “I’ve been living with this curse for most of my life, Lily, and the biggest thing I’ve learned is that it cannot be controlled! Or did you skip that part of the warning label when you were casting it on me in my sleep?” She watched her sister visibly wince at the jab and she did not want to take it back, no matter how cruel that sounded.

“I’m sorry Edalyn. I know it’s going to take much more than apologies to make up for everything I’ve done, but you at least need to give me the chance to help! And this could be it!”

Dual-colored eyes snapped at her, gold and grey, a feral light dancing just behind. “No, it won’t. You don’t think I’ve tried it already? There is no way to control the Change. Once it’s got its hold on you, all you can do is fall into it and watch.” Watch as your body followed the commands of the primal instincts of a beast that had no memory of who or what it had been before. It still haunted Eda to think of Luz and King being hunted by her throughout the house, even if they were mistakenly responsible in the first place, innocent to the effects of her much needed potion. Uncorking the bottle, Eda held the spout directly over the cauldron’s contents. The moment the smoke left the bottle, the grey sludge beneath pulled it in and began to roll as if it were boiling, becoming a vivid deep purple.

“Now be quiet, this Sweet Dreams Pudding isn’t going to work if you keep distracting me. This stuff sells like ice muffins and with the upcoming festival, will set us up for the next month, if I can get the recipe right. Unless you want to give it an early taste test?”

Crossing her arms, Lilith leaned her shoulder against the living room doorway, earning a sneer from her sister. She watched Eda work on the potion, doing her best to not show discomfort at the fact Eda was taking no literal measures of the ingredients she was using. When she had tried to challenge it, Eda’s response was simply “I prefer to eyeball it, that’s how the pros work. Besides, none of my customers have died, that I’m aware of…”

Not that she cared to admit it, but Lilith knew her sister was very adept at making potions, one of the many skills that got her into heaps of trouble when they were kids. If only there was a way for them to control the curse, at least, temporarily, until they found the cure. Lilith could feel it lurking deep within her mind, the Owl Beast, neither in slumber nor awake. Just simply there. She still had her magic, but for how long? Already, the curse had started to drain her of the precious energy of her bile sac, how much time did that truly give them? Seeing that Eda’s focus was completely on the potion and not her sister, Lilith turned around and wandered through the living room and up the stairs to the second floor to her room.

Well, it was as close to a room as Eda would budge to give her, though Lilith was fairly certain it had been a closet her sister kept the less-desirables in, such as herself. Dropping down onto the overly-stuffed cot with a sigh, Lilith drew a spell circle to summon a bag of books, the cover lifting for a single heavy tome to float out onto her lap. The binding was a simple steel grey with the crest of the Emperor’s Coven carved onto the cover in a soft gold.

Lilith peeled open the book and slowly began to flip through the pages, each one covered in her handwriting of formulas; notes of spells, both failed and successful; plans for how to bring Eda to the emperor, all of which were crossed off; and, ancient glyphs from the time of Wild Magic. But what Lilith was interested more than what her sister’s apprentice used was the next section. A drawing of a door with a keyhole in the center, and carved around it, a simple triangle; the Interdimensional Abilities of the Mind. Casting a light spell for better reading, Lilith leaned over the book and began to scan the writings her younger self had taken down in eagerness to cure her sister’s curse.

If Eda refused to admit there could be a way to control the Owl Beast, then Lilith would handle it herself.

* * *

Luz was all but bouncing on the cafeteria bench, straining for her friends to join her at the table and tell them her plan. It was perfect! If the key allowed her to actually control what she was doing in her dreams, and if those other doors were just what she thought they might be, then she just might be able to actually go into other people’s dreams! It was like any dream-fantasy she had, well, fantasized! To go adventuring through the Dreamscape as Willow called it was something she did not want to pass up! And if her friends were willing, she could bring them along for the ride!

This must have been what the Oracle had told her about in the prophecy! That she would be able to travel through dreams, no matter what Eda had said. They didn’t need those Oracle Coven books anymore, they had something even better now: the key to all of their dreams. Literally.

“Maybe I should ask Amity about her dream? Then we can…” Do what? Luz’s eager smile slipped and she sat back. It was her idea in the dream to ask Amity if she wanted to dance, of course Amity would never agree to do something like that with her if she were awake. That was just when they needed to face off Grom, and that time it had been her suggestion.

Not that Luz minded in the least, in fact, it had been one of the best moments of her time on the Boiling Isles. Luz propped her cheek on her fist, replaying the dance in her mind. Their magic had blended together so well, the gigantic Abomination Amity had summoned combining with the plant glyph Luz had pressed to its forehead before it launched into the unsuspecting Grom’s mouth. Not once during that entire dance did they take their eyes off each other and, Luz slowly realized, did either of them stop smiling. Every single step had been perfect, their movements in complete sync without saying a word, it was like something out of a movie.

“But, we did it as friends, it’s not like anything else was there...right?”

Or was it? Was there something else beneath that friendship? Luz looked up to where Willow and Gus were making their way through the lunch line with Amity a few students ahead, her ever present Abomination carrying her lunch tray. The youngest Blight glanced to Luz and their eyes met briefly before she looked away, rather quickly Luz noticed.

No, Luz leaned on her elbows, there wasn’t anything there except her own curiosity and imagination. Friends were what they were and nothing more. She had seen how Amity looked at Cyrus when he was with them, and how he had looked at her. Besides, how would Amity feel if Luz told her she had actually gone into her dream, even if it was unintentional? 

“Don’t go there, Luz, you’ve watched enough anime to know what happens in situations like this. Don’t be the dreamy dork that causes nothing but trouble.”

“Who’s a dork causing trouble?”

Luz squeaked when Amity set her tray down across from her, dismissing the Abomination as she sat. For some reason, Luz found her tongue glued to the roof of her mouth as those amber eyes fixed her with a curious stare, leaving her to just simply stare back. “I...um…” Seriously, what was wrong with her? She talked to Amity nearly every single day, why was it so hard all of a sudden? Probably because the memory of their shared dream was literally dancing through Luz’s mind and sending her stomach galavanting off like a herd of butterflies. She had to say something, quickly, Amity was watching her with concern. Think, think!

“Er...hey…?” She wanted to slam her face into the table.

Amity blinked. “Hey yourself. Are you okay?”

Luz grabbed her box of apple blood and took a huge gulp. Just be cool, she’s your friend, you can talk to her. “I was just wondering...you and Cyrus? How long have you two known each other?”

If Amity had been expecting the question, she certainly didn’t seem surprised, though she did shift in her seat and poke at her food. “Since I was four, his family and mine have been close for years.”

“The Eldritch family,”

“They’re all very skilled Oracle users, but Cyrus is the best of them all, hence him being the youngest recruit of the Emperor’s Coven, outside of Lilith. He even has his own Oracle that he carries with him.”

“Sounded like he’s pretty eager for you to join as well,” Toying with the straw of her juice box, Luz looked at the table, avoiding Amiy’s eyes when she turned her head. “I remember you told me that’s your future, to join them.” There was no response, but Luz could feel the hardened stare burning into her. Where the heck were Willow and Gus? What was taking them so long?

“You really believe that is what I want for my future?”

The surprise in Amity’s tone caught Luz off guard, as did the hand that grasped hers and she looked up. Amity’s eyes caught the light from the overheads, causing Luz's breath to hitch in her throat.

“My parents told me to join the Emperor’s Coven, they wanted that to be my future. For each day of my life, they controlled everything I did to mold me into what they thought would be the next perfect weapon in the emperor's arsenal. Any time I tried to fight back, they would push harder, just like when they made me cut ties with Willow.”

“But,” Luz blinked. “You and Willow are friends again! The only one you cut ties with was Boscha!”

Because of you, Luz, you made me open my eyes and look in the mirror to see what my parents were turning me into. What I was letting myself become.

But Amity held back those words and released Luz’s hand. Neither wanted to admit missing the other’s warmth.

“Yes, Willow and I have started to mend our friendship again and because of that, I’ve started to care more about the feelings of others than appearances. So, what would make you think that after all that has happened with the Emperor’s Coven that I would still want to join them?” She held up a hand when Luz started to speak. “The next time I see Cyrus, I’m going to tell him I will not be joining the Emperor’s Coven. They lost me as a recruit the day they captured Eda, and you.” That last part she hadn't meant to say and her face instantly went bright-red.

Thankfully, the appearance of Gus and Willow saved Amity from any further antics of needing a healer to pull her foot out of her mouth.

“So!” Gus said, oblivious to the tension between the two girls. “Willow here says you’ve got some interesting developments in your prophecy. Is it true?”

In a perfect mimicry of Owlbert, Luz turned her head and blinked. “Um, what’s true?”

Gus sighed. “That the Portal Key lets you control your dreams!”

“Willow!”

The witchling flinched when Luz hissed her name. “I’m sorry, but Gus was very persistent! I couldn’t just ignore him!”

Amity felt the blood drain from her face. “You can control your dreams?” Oh Titan, did that mean that their dance last night in her dream -? That, Luz and she may have actually-?

“I-I don’t know!” Frantically, Luz waved her hands. “All I know for sure is that when I fell asleep, I saw this old wooden door with a keyhole that I unlocked with the Portal Key.” Carefully, she pulled it out from her collar to show them before tucking it away. “I don’t know if I can control my dreams, not yet anyway. When I opened the door I saw -”

“Wait, ‘yet’?” There was an edge to Amity’s voice that sent shivers down Luz’s spine. “What do you mean ‘yet’?”

“Well, I -”

“What was behind the door?”

Luz looked from Amity to Gus. “All I saw was a bunch of other doors all linked together by stairs and ladders, a lot like that one staircase illusion from _Puppet Maze_.” Seeing the blank looks from her friends, Luz shook her head. “Popular human cult movie from the 80s? Never mind. They were all linked together in this huge void that just went on forever. I couldn’t even count how many doors there were, but there were a lot. I tried to open one, but it was just emptiness on the other side. I didn’t go in because I wasn’t sure what would happen if I did, and also my alarm woke me up for school.” She watched her friends' expressions as they processed what she had said, doing her best to avoid looking at Amity for fear her guilt would show.

“You said ‘yet’ earlier, what did you mean by that?” Amity narrowed her eyes. She remembered reading about witches from the Savage Ages who had learned how to control not just the events of their own dreams, but also enter the dreams of others through an ability known only as Dream Walking. There was not much to go off of; those who used the ability too much lost the distinction between the Dream World and the Real World, becoming lost in a comatose state until their bodies eventually gave out. Shuddering at the illustrations she had seen in the book, Amity watched Luz as she shuffled in her seat.

“Well, funny thing you mention it,” Luz glanced at Willow, the excitement bubbling back in her chest. “Since you guys now know about it and I need to find out what this thing is all about, maybe we could, I dunno, have a sleepover this weekend?”

Amity, who had chosen that moment to take a drink of apple blood, inhaled too quickly and the acidic juice hit her in the back of the throat, sending the box flying off the straw as she fought back the coughing fit wracking her lungs.

Oblivious as always, Luz leaned forward. “Think about for a sec! If this is what the Oracle was really telling me about, then I need to find out what is going on! Plus, if we all work together, then maybe all four of us can go in and out of this Dreamscape, world, thing!”

“Like how you and Amity fixed Willow’s memories?” Gus asked and Luz nodded,while Amity gasped for air.

“But…” Willow frowned. “We had Eda’s magic to help that time. How are we all four going to go into the Dreamscape now that she doesn’t have magic?”

Luz dared to look at Amity at that, but the green-haired witch was currently wiping her mouth with a napkin, her bright-red face half-covered, nor did Amity’s see Luz’s own blush dusting her cheeks. “I...I’ll figure it out. Either I can try to find each of your dreams and bring you out or, maybe we all need to be touching the Portal Key?” Rubbing her eyes, Luz sighed. “Look, I know it sounds crazy, but I have to find out what’s going on, and I don’t think Eda’s going to tell me anything anytime soon! This might be the only way to find out what this prophecy is about, but I know I can’t do it on my own. Will you guys help me?”

Gus and Willow shared a pensive look for a long moment, considering Luz’s words. Even though it had been Luz’s idea to attempt to steal the Healing Hat from the emperor’s collection, even though she did not ask for help from them then, they chose to stay by her side. It had been her crazy idea to challenge Boscha to the grudgby match to teach her a lesson in bullying, even if the game ended as a bust. She always stuck by their side and never once asked them for help, so why stop the one time she did?

“We’re in,” Willow said defiantly.

“World of Dreams, here we come!” Gus punched the air.

Luz squealed with excitement and pivoted back to the last member of their party, suddenly holding her breath. “Amity? You in?”

Finally able to control her air intake, Amity swallowed hard, panic shooting all through her brain. A sleepover with Luz? Making hot chocolate? Pillow fights in their pajamas? Sleeping together?! She couldn’t even handle being on a grudgby team with the human without turning into a blushing, blubbering mess! How in the Titan’s name would she handle a sleepover, even if Willow and Gus would be with them?

“Luz I don’t think I-” The words, and Amity’s thoughts, ground to a halt the moment she looked at Luz. She saw the bags beneath her eyes, the fatigue that was dimming her usual brightness, the exhaustion weighing down her shoulders. If she had been with Luz on that field trip, then maybe things would have ended differently. Eda’s curse would not have taken its toll and Luz would still have a way home. Amity clenched her fists against her legs; forget the fear of her true feelings slipping out, Luz needed her, so this time she would be there for her. “I don’t think my parents would be willing to let me spend the night at the Owl House. But,” her eyes softened and she smiled at the human. “Lucky for us, they will be gone for the whole weekend, so I’ll be able to come and go without raising suspicion, I’ll just need to tell Ed and Em.”

“Whoo-hoo!!! Best Friends Sleepover Party!!!” Luz sprang up from her seat to do a victory dance, ignoring the surprised stares from the surrounding students. “This is going to be so much fun you guys! We’re gonna do all the things at a sleepover: stay up late, tell scary stories, and in the morning,” she plopped back into her seat. “I’m making pancakes!”

“And try to learn about your prophecy and the Dreamscape?” Amity interjected.

“That too!” Snatching up her lunch tray, Luz was practically beaming with excitement. “Get ready for some fun times, besties! This Saturday night, we’re going to the Dreamscape!”

The rest of the school day flew by for Luz with all of her energy focused on planning out the sleepover, and learning about the Dreamscape and its connection to the Portal Key, of course. It had been agreed upon they would hold off going to the library, since it had been made clear the books Amity had hoped they could use were off limits. As they parted ways to go home, Amity had mused over asking Cyrus for a written permission if she saw him. That caused a simmering of discomfort in Luz’s gut, thinking of Amity asking that oh-so-perfect Coven member for help. Then again, Amity was just trying what she thought was best and Luz could not fault her for that. So, with that in mind, Luz jogged on home, thinking of all the things she had wanted to do back in the Human World when no one would come to her sleepovers.

“Hoot-hoot! Hiya Luz!” Hooty’s overeager face zoomed out of nowhere, forcing Luz to practically bend over backwards to avoid being skewered. “Did you have a good day?”

“Hooty!” Luz grunted from the effort to straighten up without falling on her butt. “Warn someone before you pop up like that!”

“I’m just so happy to see you, hoot-hoot! I saw the weirdest looking cloud this morning and I thought it looked like you so,”

Used to the demon’s ramblings, Luz easily tuned him out while she continued on to the front door and pushed it open. Hooty’s high-pitched voice carried on through the thick wood, long after it had closed, still engrossed in his one-sided conversation.

“Edaaaaaa! I’m home!”

The kitchen exploded in response.

Purple and green smoke poured out of the doorway and into the living room, immediately saturating everything with a smell that reminded Luz of freshly baked cookies and...minty mouthwash?

“Dang it King! I told you to use one drop of Omnitonic, not one full dropper!”

“Drop? Dropper? What’s the difference? Besides, you’re the one who said the pros eyeball when they measure! I am the King of Demons! I am a master at measuring!”

Waving one hand in front of her face while covering her nose and mouth from the smoke with the other, Luz made her way into the kitchen where Eda was currently coming out from beneath the dining table, a mass of smoke clinging to her head like a comedic chef hat. King was nowhere in sight.

“Oh, hey Luz! Welcome to Hell’s Kitchen!”

Luz stared at the smog-filled kitchen and the cauldron belching out the odd smells. “That’s not our dinner, is it?” Wood splinters rained down on her hair, giving Luz just enough of a warning before a screeching King dropped from the ceiling to land smack on top of her head and both crashed to the floor. A split second later, a round bottle bounced off the pair and landed in Luz’s flattened palm.

“Nice catch, kiddo!” Eda strolled up to her, dusting the smoke from her arms. “But I’m gonna have to take that back. Omnitonic ain’t very easy, or legal, to get your hands on, and I’ll be needing that for the pudding.”

“ _Ay…_ that’s going to hurt tomorrow.” Puffing King’s tail out from her face, Luz slowly got to her feet while handing the bottle back to Eda. “Omnitonic? What kind of pudding needs that?” The contents was a bright, almost neon-green liquid that seemed to glow with a very faint light, bubbles lazily drifting to the surface from the bottom.

Pulling her spoon out from where it had impaled itself in the wall, Eda tapped the cauldron. “Sweet Dreams Pudding! Think of it as a fun little ticket to the best dream you could ever have. People pay through the nose for this stuff, and the Fireshower Festival will be the perfect time to sell this to them! A sky from another world for one night with some enhanced interdimensional magics, and you get a ton of suckers who want to go exploring through the world of dreams.”

“What the Titan is going on in here?” Lilith walked in behind Luz, her Coven book in hand. “Edalyn, I thought you were making Sweet Dream Pudding, not Mint Bath Bombs.”

“I was, until someone tried to use up my stash of Omnitonic.”

Luz winced as King spun himself around on his belly, his claws digging into her head. “You said you didn’t care how much I used as long as I didn’t pour in the whole bottle!”

Eda glowered at the demon, screwing the cap back onto the bottle. “That was for the pixie dust, you goober.”

“Omnitonic?” Lilith’s tone hitched, surprising Luz. “You use that as an ingredient for your customers? Edalyn, there is a reason why that potion has been banned.”

“Yeah, yeah, dangerous magics, transformative abilities, yada yada yada.” Setting the bottle into a box, Eda closed the lid and turned the lock. “And that’s why I’m careful with how much of it I use. The potion calls for a very small amount of the stuff, or else the spell would not work. I’m not as careless as you think, Lily, I was in the Potions Track, after all.”

“What’s Omnitonic?” Luz looked from Eda to Lilith and back. King was still draped over her head, but she didn’t mind, his belly was soft and warm like a living beanie.

Picking up the box, Eda tucked it under her arm and turned to Luz. “It’s a potion that can turn a person into anyone or anything else for a temporary amount of time. The trick is you need to have a piece of whatever you want to turn into, like a hair or something.”

Luz's eyes grew wide. “Anything?”

“Anything. But,” Eda held up a finger before Luz could speak. “There’s more to it than just changing. It is a temporary change, but, it’s hard to say how long the change will last. It could be ten minutes, ten hours, or longer.”

The excitement Luz had fizzled out. “Oh. Is there a way to control how long or short it lasts?”

“Some say,” Lilith said, flipping through her book. “The length of time comes from whatever is dissolved into the potion from what it is the user desires to become. But even that is debatable.”

Luz looked at Eda, suddenly uncomfortable with the bubbling goop in the cauldron and the purple and green smoke coming from it. “And, you feed that to people?”

“Hey, in your dreams, you can be whoever you want to be and do whatever you want to do. This stuff,” Eda patted the cast-iron pot. “Just helps give a little boost to those desires.” Setting the spoon down, the Owl Lady dusted her hands and began to shoo everyone away. “Now move along, nothing more to see here. This stuff has to sit for at least 48 hours before its ready, and I want to get all deliveries out before the Festival next week!”

“Oh! I forgot to tell you something!” Luz dug her feet into the carpet to stop. “Willow, Gus, and Amity are going to be here this weekend for a sleepover, so I-I” Eda’s hands were on her shoulders and spinning her around to face her mentoring in a heartbeat.

“And who told you you could have a sleepover here? Do I have to remind you we’re trying to keep a low profile? Not go crazy with pillow-death-fights and sickeningly-sweet rom-coms on the crystal ball? Besides,” Eda glanced over her shoulder at Lilith. “How do we know no one is going to blab about the Emperor Coven’s former leader hiding out here? Especially if that someone is from a high-profile family who has said Coven in their back pocket?”

Eda’s words cut to Luz’s heart, but she couldn’t back away, not after everything they had been through. Taking a deep breath, Luz stared back into the gold and grey eyes locked on her face. “ _Amity_ is not going to blab. She told me she doesn’t want to join the Emperor's Coven, and, more so, I trust her! Amity is, is a,” steeling herself, Luz jabbed a finger at Eda’s chest. “Amity is a kind, thoughtful, caring person who would never betray her friends to anyone! Her parents are mean and controlling, but she isn’t going to be their puppet! She’s smart, strong, sweet, beautiful-” The instant the word left her mouth, Luz froze. Where the heck did that come from?

Sighing, Eda put her hands on her hips, but there was a glint in her eyes. “Alright, fine, if Lily's okay with it, I’ll let you have your little ‘bestie friend’ party here. But if any of you try to paint my nails, I’m gone.” With that, the Owl Lady turned on her heel and strode back into the kitchen, yelling over her shoulder. “Hey, King of Messes, you’re on cleaning duty while I finish up this potion!”

Grunting, King leapt off Luz’s head and scurried into the room. “I am the King of Demons, I do not clean up my own messes!”

Luz stayed where she was, her brain still trying to process the words she had used to defend Amity. Of course she believed everything she said, but, did she really think Amity was beautiful? Those amber eyes that always seemed to soften anytime she looked at her; the half-smile that only appeared when they were together; the way her mint-green hair just barely brushed her bottom jaw when she moved and the small patch of auburn above her forehead. Swallowing with a suddenly dry throat, Luz held a hand to her face, feeling very warm. They were just friends, no way they could be anything else. Right?

“If you think any harder, steam is going to come out of your ears.”

Lilith’s voice nearly caused Luz to jump to the ceiling she had been so quiet, casually thumbing through her Coven book from the doorway, an amused grin toying at the edges of her lips.

Her face now burning, Luz turned and bolted up the stairs to her room, slamming the door shut behind her and leaning against it. This was not good, this was not good. Sliding down to the floor, Luz held her face in her hands as the room spun in her vision. She needed some air.

For the remainder of the afternoon and evening, Luz stayed in her room, too nervous to eat when dinner was ready and too embarrassed when it was time to sleep. Not long after everyone else had gone to bed did Luz tiptoe down to Eda’s room where one of the doors opened a crack and looked in.

“Owlbert?”

There was a flutter of wings followed by a soft hoot and the staff drifted to her outstretched hand. “Hey bud, wanna go for a quick flight?” Her response was a light coo that she took as a ‘yes’, so jogging back to her room, Luz propped open her bedroom window and she straddled the owl staff. Owlbert’s wings sprang open and, with Luz shoving off the side of the house, darted up into the starry night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you all enjoyed this chapter! It was one of my favorites to write.
> 
> Where do you all think Luz is headed with Owlbert?
> 
> And in case you are wondering, yes the Omnitonic is a reference to HP, but also to another tv show...any guesses?
> 
> See you in the next chapter!


	7. In the Between

The notebook page glinted beneath the lamplight of Amity’s desk as she reread the Oracle’s prophecy for what felt like the hundredth time, her own notes scribbled around Luz’s handwriting. The Firestorm was linked to the stars crossed line and the Portal Key was the key turned or the dream be lost part, those had been written down. But everything else? Groaning, Amity ran her hand through her hair, having let it down now that she was by herself in her room. It was late, far later than she should be up with school the next day, but her mind refused to shut off. That and, her ears grew warm, if Luz was indeed exploring the Dreamscape, she did not want to risk the human stumbling into her own.

Amity shook her head and stared at the page, willing the words to make some sort of sense for her. Realities collapsing and worlds colliding, that literally spelled out impending doom, but what would Eda’s curse have to do with that? Old and young turned so fowl, Amity had circled that part and marked it with a question mark. Luz had brought them fully up to speed with how Eda’s curse had been afflicted and by whom. Lilith had already fallen off the pedestal as far as Amity had been concerned when she tricked her with the Power Glyph, but, cursing her own sister? The temptation to ask her parents about her former-mentor’s induction day into the Emperor's Coven had been on the tip of her tongue when she saw them after school, but the fear of them questioning her motives had been too great.

Aggravating as it was, Amity had to admit to herself the rest of the prophecy completely stumped her. Eye of demon, suns and moons, it was just one of many reasons she was truly happy she had never elected to study Oracle magic. Interesting as it was, predicting the future and analyzing creatures that spoke in riddles was enough to make her brain itch. Groaning, the witchling sat back in her chair to stare up at the ceiling. If only there was something to take her mind off this...maybe a little fresh air would do her some good? Turning in her seat, Amity stood and walked over to her window, lifting the hatch. Just then, something off in the distance caught her eye and she squinted to get a better look.

“Gangway!!!”

Amity was knocked flat onto her back as whatever had flown through her window slammed into her stomach, sending the both of them tumbling to the floor. For a split second, Amity wondered if that was her dislocated leg currently squishing her nose into her face and if the healers would be able to pop it back into the socket, when an all-too familiar voice grumbled.

“Buho volador loco, what the heck was that for?!”

The leg lifted off Amity’s face as the intruder pulled themselves up into a sitting position. “Oh jeez, I’m so sorry, I don’t know what got into - Amity?!”

Propping herself onto her elbows, Amity stared at the one person she had both not been expecting to see nor was she prepared to see. “Luz? What are you doing here?”

“I-um,”

Whatever Luz was about to say, Amity silenced with a hand the second she heard footsteps coming down the hall. Titan, would she ever get a moment of peace? “You have to hide, now!”

“But-”

Scrambling to her feet, Amity’s eyes darted around the room for a suitable hiding spot. “Get in the closet, get in the closet!”

“You-”

Amity rammed her palms into Luz’s back, pushing her as quickly as she could, only pausing to yank open the door to her closet, and shoving her into the large space. “Be quiet!”

“What about-?”

The door slammed in the human’s face before she could finish and Amity turned, ready to face whomever was turning the knob to her door, until she saw Owlbert hovering in the middle of her room. Oh for the love of Titan, this was getting ridiculous! Darting from the closet door, Amity grasped the staff and in one fluid motion reminiscent of her grudgby days, chucked the palisman under her bed and landed on the mattress. She had just grabbed her Abominations book, turning it when she realized it was upside down, when the door opened and her father stepped in, his eyes instantly going from his daughter to the wide-open window.

“Amity, why are you still up? What was that ruckus?”

“Ruckus?” She swallowed, thinking quickly. “That was...me. My...leg was hurting, so I thought I would...stretch it out of a bit. Practice some muscle warm ups from grudgby training.” She struggled to maintain eye contact with her father as he studied her, his face a blank mask.

“I see. Well then if that is it -”

“ _ Achoo! _ ”

Slowly, Amity’s father turned his head to the closet door. “Amity, did your closet just sneeze?”

If there ever was a moment Amity wanted to kill Luz, this was it. Before she could even think of something to say, her father had already crossed the room and was opening the door. Clothes hung in meticulous order, a single row of crisp school uniforms, assorted casual outfits, and her varsity grudgby jacket, next to some more formal dresses, including the one Amity had worn to Grom, and an emerald-green dress suit. And, of course, a custom-made  _ Good Witch Azura _ costume, the only one novelty her parents had allowed. No sign of anything, or anyone, occupying the space. It was all Amity could do to not stare open-mouthed, as her father flipped through a couple outfits before deciding whatever had made the noise was not worth pursuing.

“Well then, goodnight, Amity.” With a single nod, her father walked back across the room and shut the door, but not before glancing over his shoulder one last time. Waiting until she was positive her father had long since left her hall, Amity vaulted off the bed and ran to the closet.

“Luz!” No answer. Frowning, Amity leaned in closer. “Luz? Are you there?” A hand shot out from the darkness and tapped her nose.

“Boop!”

“Augh!” Amity jerked back, covering her blush and watched as Luz untangled herself from the  _ Azura _ outfit. “Luz, what the heck are you doing here?” In her room where Amity realized, swallowing thickly, they were now alone.

Pulling the costume hat from her head and patting down her hair, Luz returned the article to the rest of the outfit and closed the door before facing Amity. “Yeah, I...don’t know how that happened.”

Amity narrowed her eyes. “You do realize if anyone else catches you here, we’re both dead?”

“I know! Believe me, this was the last place I wanted to fly to during the night!” Luz bit her lip at the flush of disappointment on Amity’s face before she could hide it. “Not that I wouldn’t want to come here to see you, I just,” This was not going at all how she wanted it to and she shifted on her feet. “I wanted some fresh air and Owlbert just sort of, kinda, had a case of the crazies...”

There was a soft thump and a hoot and Amity glanced over her shoulder to watch the palisman hop out from beneath her bed and up onto the window seat. “What do you mean he had the ‘crazies’?”

Luz took a deep breath, sighing through her nose. “It’s a...long story…”

*A few hours ago…*

Owlbert flew from the windowsill, carrying Luz out over the cliffside before making a slow turn to loop back over the forest. As if taking the cue there was no destination in Luz’s mind, the palisman lazily climbed the currents until leveling out to glide across the land. Sliding back so she could rest her stomach on the staff, Luz propped her chin on her forearms.

Had she really said all those things to Eda? Every word she had used to defend Amity in front of her mentor spun in her head, mixing with the guilt for not explaining why exactly she wanted the sleepover in the first place. It was as if every single thing that happened to her after destroying the Portal only had one purpose: to drive her absolutely crazy.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaugh!!!” The girl yowled at the night sky, raking her fingers through her hair. “Why does nothing make sense any more?!”

The staff took a quick dip forward, forcing Luz to quickly grasp hold and Owlbert hooted.

“No Owlbert, I don’t want to talk about it.”

It was quiet for a moment, until Luz felt the staff shudder beneath her hands and the trajectory suddenly change from horizontal to vertical. Luz gulped.

“Mierda,”

Owlbert rocketed straight up into the sky, his passenger hollering in Spanish at the top of her lungs as he looped, spun, corkscrewed, and even somehow managed to pull an airborne version of The Worm. Fingers locked in a steel grip, Luz clung to the palisman desperately as she dangled in the air, her feet pointlessly kicking in the wind. If she died right now, Eda would kill her, and possibly Owlbert too. Was that even possible?

“Okay, okay, I get the message! Enough already with the acrobatics and the barrel rolls!”

The palisman finally slowed to a stop and Luz pulled herself back up onto the staff, grunting from the effort, and collapsed forward on her chest. A hoot came from the owl and she glared at him.

“That was mean, Owlbert.” Her only response was another hoot and she sighed. “You want me to talk it out, don’t you?” The front of the staff dipped again, which Luz took to be as a nod. Were all palismans as cheeky at Owlbert? If not, no wonder he and Eda made such a perfect duo, and if they were, Luz would have to be very careful when the time would come for her to select her palisman.

“Well, I don’t know what to say. I mean, I don’t know if you heard what I said earlier to Eda, but I, I,” she groaned, burying her face in her arms. “I just couldn’t let her say all those things about Amity! Yeah, her parents are bad and her home life is pretty crappy, but she would never betray any of us! She’s way too good a witch, and a friend, to do that!” Her chest tightened at the reminder of what else she had said. “I - I didn’t mean to say that she was beautiful as well, it just, I dunno, slipped out!”

Owlbert flapped his wings to catch a current, completely silent.

“Not that Amity’s isn’t pretty or anything,” Luz quickly said, her face starting to warm up. “She’s actually very pretty and, yeah, I do think she is beautiful! I don’t know why I’m saying this, but she is! But, to think of a friend as beautiful doesn’t make it a friendship anymore…” Rubbing her arms, Luz stared up at the night sky, her eyes tracing the faint image of the Light Glyph. First she had told her she was pretty, then had asked her to dance in the Dreamscape, and now was defending her in front of her mentor by calling her beautiful. Why was she doing this and where was it coming from? It wasn’t like Luz had feelings for Amity.

Or did she?

Luz jerked her head side to side. “No, no, I can’t think of her like that! Amity’s a friend, she’d never think of me like that! She wanted to ask out someone to Grom, but was too afraid of the rejection.” She really couldn’t blame her for that, considering Amity had been forced to hold up the mantle of the stoic, no-weakness-mentality of the Blight family. If she had asked Luz, she would have said yes in a heartbeat, albeit, it would have felt funny for your friend to ask you out in such a way. But still, Luz would never want to hurt Amity like that! And, even if there was something going on,how could Luz know if Amity liked her back? The Boiling Isles seemed to be a far more accepting place of who liked who than back in the Human World, but that did not mean the uncertainty did not still exist.

“Besides, I’m just a human girl from another world,” Luz swallowed. “She deserves to be with someone better than a weirdo like me.”

Owlbert hovered in the air for a few more silent moments, his wings tilting every so often as another current would pass their way. It was not until Luz felt the staff suddenly careen off did she realize they were moving, in fact, they were moving at a much faster pace than they had before, only this time Owlbert was not pulling any crazy air stunts. Whatever words Luz tried to yell at the palisman to slow down were lost in the galeforce swirling around her, blurring her eyes with tears so she could not see where they were headed. The only warning Luz got was a quick flash of moonlight against glass before Owlbert came to a dead-stop, leaving Luz to continue with the momentum, hollering as best she could, and plow right into an unsuspecting Amity, both tumbling to the floor in a heap of Spanish curses and limbs.

“That’s how you ended up here?” Amity stared at Luz as she finished her story and the owl who had hopped onto the human’s shoulder. They had both since taken a seat, Amity on the side of her bed and Luz cross-legged on the floor. “Because Owlbert got a case of the ‘owl crazies’.”

Luz scratched the back of her head. “That basically sums it up. I just wanted some fresh air and Owlbert wanted to go zoomies.’”

“Because you got in a fight with Eda?”

“Yup,”

“Why would Owlbert take you here?” When Amity had first seen Luz use the staff, she had been shocked that a witch would willingly share the sacred bond of her magical familiar with another. Granted, Eda was Eda and if she was letting Luz use Owlbert, the witch trusted her. Seeing the tiny palisman so comfortably settled on Luz’s shoulder made Amity wonder about the day when she would finally be able to earn a staff of her own, and what the palisman would be. Strange though, that it would act so strongly on its own to bring Luz here…

Luz shifted in place and tapped her fingers together. She couldn’t tell Amity what she had said to Owlbert, she had made sure to leave that out of her story. She was still wrapping her head around it herself. A sharp beak pinched her earlobe and she jolted, swatting at the side of her face, missing Owlbert and smacking herself instead. What did the little bugger want her to do? Spill everything to Amity? Then again, Luz thought as she pinched the raw skin where he had bit her, maybe it wouldn’t hurt to get a little something off her chest. Taking a deep breath, Luz looked up to meet Amity’s eyes, doing her best to not stare at the loose strands of green hair framing her face.

“Well, there has been something on my mind for awhile...and...I wanted to tell you...about it…”

Amity’s eyes narrowed. Taking her silence as a cue to continue, Luz took another deep breath.

“Remember when I told you guys earlier today about the Portal Key and how I saw the door leading to all the others?” She watched Amity nod slowly. “Well that may not have been the first dream I had last night. Before the door I saw...something else.”

If it was not for the silver hue of the moonlight Luz would have seen Amity’s face take on a very vibrant shade of pink, both girls steeling themselves for the information about to drop.

“I...I saw you.”

A very high-pitched squeak came from Amity’s throat, but she quickly swallowed back the burning embarrassment threatening to claw its way out. So, that was Luz in her dream! She had seen her crying, had comforted her, asked her to dance. Oh Titan, she had held her!

Luz watched the witchling’s wide eyes slowly narrow into a cold stare that set the hairs at the back of her neck on end. She knew Amity was playing the entire dream back in her mind, and from the look she was giving her, she was remembering quite a lot.

“That was you?” The even tone crawled over Luz’s skin, leaving goosebumps in its wake. “You came into my dream last night?”

Gulping, Luz scratched the back of her head and tried to smile through the terror she now was feeling for her life. “If I tell you the truth, you promise not to murder me?”

Amber eyes flashed in the moonlight. “Did you enter my dream last night?”

“Would you accept a heartfelt apology?”

The room rushed around Luz and stars filled her vision as she was knocked to the floor in a full-on body slam, Amity’s hands pinning her shoulders to the plush carpeting that did little to soften the blow. It was no wonder to Luz why Amity had been made captain of the grudgby team, she was much stronger than she looked. She would have said some sort of compliment if Amity wasn’t glaring down at her like she was about to pummel her into goop for her next Abomination formula.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I didn’t know what was going on!” Luz’s arms flailed beneath the witchling’s grasp. Why wasn’t Owlbert doing anything to help? She squoze her eyes shut against the hate she knew was burning from Amity’s eyes, until something cool and wet tapped her cheek. Her eyes snapped open to see Amity’s eyes shining in the darkness, a glimmer of tears over the amber, emotions fliting by so fast, Luz could barely decipher them. Biting her lip, Luz brought her hands up and, grasping Amity’s inner-elbows, pulled. Amity gasped as her weight suddenly dropped, allowing Luz to throw her off to the side and sit up, bringing her arms up as a shield.

“Amity, please listen to me! I didn’t know I was in your dream, honestly, at first I thought it was mine! I saw you crying, I couldn’t stand seeing you like that! And, when the scene changed to the cliff where we fought Grom, and I saw the tree I just...I...I wanted to make you happy! I care about you, Amity! I care about you a lot! I didn’t mean to hurt you! I...I’m sorry.” Luz braced herself, for another body slam or the torrent of angry words she was positive Amity was going to throw at her, or even the demand she take Owlbert and leave. None of that came.

“Why?”

The question had been spoken so quietly, Luz nearly missed it. Slowly, her eyes peeled open and she dropped her arms. Amity was on her side, looking like she was about to get up, but was now completely still. Luz’s heart cracked at the tears staining the girl’s cheeks, but she stayed put.

“Why did you not tell me?”

“Because I knew you’d hate me.” It was Luz’s turn to frown at the shocked look Amity gave her. “Why else would you body-chuck me to the floor like that? I know I intruded into your dreams and it was wrong for me to not tell you, but what was I supposed to do? Be honest? Yes, but it’s a little hard to do that when the person you’re trying to talk to literally runs away.”

“I don’t run away when you talk to me!”

“Yes, you do! Ever since Grom, you’ve been walking around me like you're on thin ice. And I think I know why,”

Amity’s eyes widened and she sucked in a breath. “You-you do?” Titan, this was it, wasn’t it? The one person she had ever had feelings for, true, strong feelings, was about to say the words that would make or break her heart. Her lungs burned for her to breathe, but she was too nervous, waiting on what Luz was about to say.

“Yeah, I do,” Those warm brown eyes focused on her intently. “You keep saying you're a Blight, that you can’t show any weakness or be vulnerable in front of anyone. That night, when we faced off Grom, we both saw ourselves as vulnerable. But, that’s okay!” Carefully, Luz reached out and took Amity’s hand, making her gasp. “I’ve never told anyone what I saw, or about the note Grom tore in half. I don’t know who it was you wanted to ask out, but I’ll tell you this,” taking both of her hands now, Luz tugged Amity to her and held her in a tight hug. “They would be stupido to reject someone as kind, amazing, smart, and,” she swallowed before continuing. “As beautiful as you. I promise, Amity, I will never do anything to hurt you.”

The words pierced through the armor Amity had built up over the years of cruelty her parents had placed upon her, simultaneously wounding and healing at the same time. Luz had all the pieces of the puzzle, but could not see the full-scale image before her eyes. She had kept Amity’s deepest secret hidden, but did not know she was the secret. Her kind, caring, stubborn, fearless champion was no more oblivious to the truth than the moment Amity had realized how head-over-heels she truly was in for the human. But in that oddly self-deprecating monologue, she had said one word that hit Amity the hardest.

“You...think I’m beautiful?” She felt Luz’s body tense up and had the immediate satisfaction of seeing a familiar pink hue skim across the human’s face.

“I...um...well…” She was in deep at this point, might as well go along. “You-you are! And, I don’t just mean looks. Amity, you’re a beautiful person! Heck, you’re better than most humans I know, not counting Mami.”

Flattering, if not a little out there, but Amity was not about to stop Luz. Clearly, the human was not done speaking. A small, pained smile appeared on her lips and she leaned into Luz’s arms, feeling their security around her shoulders.

“I’m serious! Yeah, at first I thought you hated me and wanted me ground into dust, but getting to know you, I know that’s not who you really are! That’s why I asked you to dance last night, in your dream.” Luz pulled back to look at Amity’s face, but not far enough so their noses were practically touching. “You’re amazing, Amity, and any witch would be lucky to be with you.” The temptation was so great, to add in the distinction for he or she, but Luz found her voice could not give that last part inflection. She wanted to, so badly, if for nothing better than to satisfy the intense curiosity of if Amity did have a preference. It had been both a freeing and binding experience the day Luz had come to her mom with the bold admittance that she was as much into girls as she was into guys.

Freeing, to tell her mom and to know that despite all that, her mother still loved her as she was. Binding, because she knew the world would forever label her for what she was, and never leave her alone for it. Now here, on the Boiling Isles, she had the chance to find out if this girl, a living, breathing witch, could possibly feel the same. The words pulled at her, begging to be released, but all of her strength was slipping away, taken by the adrenaline rush that had left her veins, and the weight of Amity against her chest. So instead, Luz lightly pulled at her shoulders.

“C’mon, we should get you to bed.” Her own eyelids were starting to droop and when Amity yawned, she mirrored the action. Slowly, both girls pulled each other to their feet and haphazardly lumbered towards Amity’s bed. Luz carefully pulled back the blanket and sheets, tucking them over Amity shoulders when she had lain her down, but the second she turned around, a slim hand wrapped around her wrist.

“Luz, wait,”

Luz did just that and turned to face Amity. If only she knew the inner turmoil running through her, heart and mind at war with each other, fighting to reveal the truth against maintaining their relationship as it was. Releasing her grip, Amity patted the mattress beside her, giving Luz a pleading look that snared her heart.

“Stay, please,”

There was more to those words than either of them could know at the time, a silent plea for their feelings to be made known, overcome by the fear of what could happen. Still, as if understanding some of what was asked, Luz slowly smiled and, carefully sitting down on the space Amity had scooted aside to make for her, laid down on the blanket, her eyes drooping shut. Amity was able to keep her’s open for just a few moments longer, adoration positively glowing from her gaze, before she too succumbed to the comfort of sleep.

Whatever they dreamed of that night, the Dreamscape kept secret.

* * *

Cyrus Eldritch stood at the central level of the Conformatorium, watching the streets of Bonesborough pass the nighttime by, his boredom hidden behind the avian helmet of his uniform. The break-in at Hexside had put the Coven on edge and they had asked Principle Bump to keep things quiet while the investigation remained underway. According to the reports, nothing had gone amiss, but Bumps’ office had been turned completely upside down as whoever had broken in searched for what they were looking for. Either it was a simple prank by a student or a very clever cover up. So, until they had all their answers, the Coven would assign extra security to both the Emperor’s fortress and the Conformitorium.

Warden Wrath was not about to take any risks, and Cyrus did not need his mind-reading ability to guess why. The Conformitorium held some of the most dangerous magical items on the Isles, and some highly-valued information in the archives.

“Eldritch,”

Well, speak of the demon. Cyrus turned his head to see the warden shoulder his way out of the nearby door to join him on the walkway.

“Yes, warden?”

“We have a new crop of wild witches coming in tomorrow, I want you here when they arrive. If any of them have a single thought regarding what happened at Hexside, I want to know about it.”

Beneath the helmet, Cyrus rolled his eyes. “Warden, we checked every square inch of the school. Nothing was reported stolen, it was probably some disgruntled student wanting to poke fun at Bump.”

The warden’s masked face rotated to him. “Then why was the lock to the Oracle vault left unlatched?”

Cyrus frowned. This was information they had already discussed, all the orbs had been accounted for. “Probably left as a diversion to throw off the trail. The Professor checked the crystal balls, none were damaged or even scuffed. Besides,” he patted the pouch at his hip containing the crystal ball for his Oracle. “What would anyone want with an Oracle?”

Warden Wrath turned to face him, but whatever his response was cut off as the entire Conformitorium suddenly lurched forwards, only to snap back, throwing its occupants off their feet. Jumping to his feet, Cyrus looked over the side of the tower to see the dust settling around a massive hole in the lower base. Already, he could hear the sounds of struggle as guards and Coven members entered combat. The witch shoved off the wall and through the door Wrath had used, not stopping to look back for the demon, knowing he would be up soon.

The interior of the Conformitorium was full of flashes of magic and spell circles, clashing against the intruder that had dared to challenge the guards. Skidding to a halt, Cyrus looked down the circular levels, pulling off his helmet as a flash of blue fire shot at a group of Coven members from the hidden enemy. Taking a deep breath, Cyrus closed his eyes and felt the tattoo on his forehead grow warm, calling on his ability. Lifting his finger, Cyrus drew the spell circle, a brilliant yellow-gold, and cast it down to the first level, where it expanded, and he heard the shriek of a creature in pain. In an instant, his thoughts were bombarded with the intruder as it thrashed against the psychic energies overtaking its mind.

It was after something, a scroll? No, a map, he saw a map. A twisting path cutting across the body of the Titan towards a place full of powerful magics.

A rush of wind was the only warning Cyrus had as something massive shot up from the first level, plowing into him and throwing him against a nearby gate. Pain split through his thoughts as the back of his head cracked against the cruel iron bars, breaking his concentration.

“Eldritch!”

Wrath’s voice was muffled by the ringing in his ears and he slowly pushed himself to a sitting position. A huge shadow loomed over him and he looked up.

A tattered hood and cloak covered the intruder from head to toe, its body hovering over Cyrus like a monstrous ghost, face masked in darkness. Clutched tightly in a hand covered in black wrappings was a single scroll. Something nearby crashed and the intruder jerked its head to the side, shrieking at the sight of Warden Wrath, and took off, its movements eerily silent as it flew through an open door and out of the Conformitorium.

“After that demon!” Wrath yelled at the guards who were still standing. “Stop it before it gets away!” He then turned back to Cyrus, who was slowly getting to his feet, a hand pressed to his throbbing head. “What was that thing?”

“I...I’m not sure.” Cyrus squinted in the overhanging lights. “But I saw what it took, and where it wanted to go. Warden,” Squaring his shoulders, Cyrus looked out the door where the creature had vanished. “It’s going to the Knee.”

* * *

A circle hovered in the darkness, glowing a deep violet as it slowly traced through the air, lines crossing over each other in a spoke-like pattern to meet a single solid dot. Another circle began to form within; a figure eight sitting on top of a rectangle on its side, and below it, a small filled-in triangle. Luz stared at the glyph as it began to pulse with light, giving her the sensation of being pulled closer, only to be pushed away. Slowly, she reached out to trace the colorful glyph. Instead, her hand brushed something that parted between her fingers like fine strands of silk and soft skin touched her palm. Her eyelids wobbled open.

Amity’s face was mere inches from hers, eyes closed in sleep, lips parted ever so slightly to reveal the hint of fangs - which made Luz was to squeal with cuteness - her hands tucked beneath her pillow. Mind heavy from her dream, Luz saw her own arm was draped over the witchling’s shoulder, her fingers lazily trailing through her green hair and over the pointed tip of her ear. Her other arm was pinned under the shared pillow and she felt Amity’s fingers flick, lightly brushing her own.

Oh, right, Amity had asked her to stay and they fell asleep together. Luz sighed and closed her eyes, ready to snuggle back in, when the realization hit her. She was snuggling with Amity. In her room. In her house. Where her parents would murder her if they found them like this.

Alarm bells went off in her brain and out of the comforting warmth as Luz pulled away, rolling off the mattress and landing in a crouch on the floor. Seeing Owlbert already perched on the staff beside the still-open window Luz tugged on her shoes, which she had kicked off during the night. She was ready to take Owlbert and fly out the window when she heard a soft moan from Amity’s bed, freezing her in place. After an agonizing moment of silence, Luz looked over her shoulder, sighing with relief when she saw Amity had simply shifted in place, a hand resting where Luz had been seconds ago. There was a tightness in Luz’s heart that she didn’t understand, a reluctance to leave Amity’s side, but she could see the hint of sunlight just barely bleeding into the night. She had to at least leave something for Amity to know she had left, but what? Her eyes then caught Amity’s pencil on her desk next to her open notebook.

A few hours later, the ever annoying screech of the alarm jolted Amity awake and she instinctively flipped on her side to shut off the evil device. She just wanted a few more precious moments of silence and comfort, snuggling back under the covers to settle into Luz’s warmth. Wait, her eyes popped open, what?

The blankets flew off as Amity sprang sideways out of the bed, her face a perfect imitation of a tomato to face the human, but no one was there. Her eyes went to the open window and the empty space Owlbert had chosen for a perch, her heart heavy in her chest. It was for the best, she told herself. If her parents caught Luz here, if they had seen them together like that, she shuddered at the thought. Their order she cut her ties with Willow would be nothing compared to what their reaction would surely be if they learned how she felt for the human apprentice of the Owl Lady, and a girl on top of it.

Clenching her fists in an attempt to fight the rush of thoughts, Amity walked to the widow and reached up to close them. And that was when she saw it. Sitting on the window seat beside a tiny brown feather, sprouting out of the bright-green glyph on a sheet of notebook paper, was a single pink rose.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little cliche ending, but it was the best one I could think of. Plenty of emotions in this chapter, but I hope you all liked it! And we got to see a bit more of Cyrus, in action. What are your thoughts?  
> Stay tuned!


	8. Nus gnisir, noom gnillaf

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Drah si sdrawkcab gnitirw!  
> PS. This chapter will be rated T due to some suggestive content. But it’s not what you’re thinking, these kids are still 14. Just adding this rating to be safe.

To say it had been a restful night was a stretch. To call it a productive night was a downright lie. Even trying to think of the one or two measly hours of sleep that finally came along would not cut it. Basically, it had not been a good night for either of the Clawthorne sisters, and it showed. When Eda finally hauled her tired toosh out of her nest and stumbled downstairs, she found Lilith sitting at the kitchen table nursing a mug of stiff black tea. Her dual-colored eyes stared groggily out the window at the Boiling Sea, but when Eda entered the kitchen, she glanced her way and nodded a greeting. Snorting, Eda shuffled over to the fridge and pulled out a carton of apple blood.

“Long night?”

“You could say that.” Lilith set down her mug and rubbed an arm. “I take it you didn’t sleep much either?”

Eda scooped up her own mug, a picture of a furry critter with the words “For Fox Sake!” painted on the front, and leaned against the counter. “It shows?”

Sighing, Lilith took a sip of tea while Eda inhaled her drink, both enjoying the moment of silence in the house. In fact, at this time of the morning, it was usually noisier. Frowning, Eda pushed off the counter to look at the clock. Shouldn’t Luz be down here by now eating breakfast before school?

A muffled thump came from above, followed by a yelp and shuffling. A door slamming and feet pounding down the stairs was the only warning before Luz tore through the kitchen like a gorenado in the Armpit, tugging her uniform in place and pulling her bag over her shoulder.

“SorryIcan’tralkrigjtnowgottagettoschoolloveyoubye!” Barely stopping to grab a Rot Tart that conveniently popped out of the toaster, Luz yanked open the door and disappeared in a human-shaped cloud of dust. Eda did not even bother trying to rescue King’s breakfast. He’d just have to get something else.

Lilith blinked. “Well, that explains the prolonged quiet. It’s not like Luz to sleep in so late on a school day.”

Grunting, Eda walked to the pantry to find her own breakfast, opening a box of Grubbin’ Gremlin Goober cereal and giving it an experimental sniff. It wasn’t growing anything, so it was safe. Taking out a bowl, Eda poured the cereal. “Not unless she snuck out during the night.” She heard Lilith’s mug hit the table.

“She  _ what _ ?”

“I heard her last night ‘borrowing’ Owlbert from my room. Kid was gone for most of the night. I don’t know when she came back, must’a been when I finally fell asleep.” Dumping milk over the partially stale cereal, Eda walked to the table and sat down. “Dunno what she was up to.”

Frowning at the news, Lilith returned her attention to the window as her sister began shoveling cereal into her mouth. While she had a hunch Eda was far more proud of her apprentice than she would admit for executing that level of behavior, it made her worried. What would drive Luz to leave the house during the night, alone, when she could become an easy target for the Emperor’s Coven? Was it the Dreamscape? Or, she thought back to what the human had said yesterday regarding Amity. Was it something else?

“And you’re not at all concerned?”

Looking up from the bowl with her spoon sticking out of her mouth, Eda shrugged. “Eh, it’s not that hard to guess. You heard her yesterday going off about that little green-haired girl. Kid’s over the moon for her, she probably went off to go ‘confess her love’ or whatever sappy thing teens do these days.”

Lilith couldn’t argue against that, but still, to just go out like that was risky. Even for someone as daring and look-before-you-leap as her sister’s apprentice. Sighing, Lilith finished the last of her tea and stood from the table to deposit her cup in the sink, leaving Eda to continue with her breakfast. There were many questions buzzing through her mind, but they all kept returning to Luz’s actions, which did not help her at all with the main issue at hand. Feeling the prick of an itch under her sleeve, Lilith scratched at the irritated spot and headed back to her room. She had work to do.

* * *

With literal seconds to spare, Luz flew through the halls and darted into her morning potions class to plant herself in her chair right as the bell went off. The teacher hardly gave her a second look and she relaxed, feeling relieved she had managed to yank her butt out of bed when she did. She hadn’t meant to sleep in so late! After she got back to the Owl House in the early morning hours, Luz had flopped down on her bed roll expecting to just stare at the ceiling as she contemplated everything that had happened between herself and Amity. Instead, the moment her head hit the pillow, she was pulled back into the echoing darkness of the Dreamscape with the purple door standing before her.

Only this time, instead of her opening it, the door creaked open all by itself, showing not the mess of other doors from before, but a set of stairs that split so one led down and the other led up. The same dark purple and black void swirled around her to obscure anything else that was possibly close. Intrigued, Luz walked through the door and, after a quick round of eenie-meenie, chose the staircase to the right and descended into the void.

It was only after a few moments that Luz spotted something through the surrounding haze: a picture hanging beside the steps like a photo in a hallway. It was of herself, flying through the twilight sky on Owlbert. But, that was less than an hour ago. Squinting, Luz gasped when the picture suddenly came to life, playing the moment like a short movie. After just a couple more steps down, Luz saw another “picture” and when she approached it, she felt her cheeks heat up.

She was asleep on Amity’s bed with her arm hugging the witch tightly, both their faces relaxed in deep slumber. Amity’s head was tucked under Luz’s chin with her arms pulled into her chest, the only thing separating them. A tiny groan slipped from her lips and she lifted an arm up to snake over Luz’s shoulder to tug her closer and they snuggled even tighter together. Luz heard Amity mumble something under her breath, to which her sleeping self mumbled a response, but she tore her eyes away and jogged down the stairs. Even though that was her in the picture, it felt strange to watch such an intimate moment. Especially if she wasn’t awake during said moment, it felt creepy.

The staircase continued down in a shallow spiral with more pictures of past moments appearing in the void; Luz fighting the Emperor’s Coven, the grudgby incident, her dance with Amity against Grom, facing Grom in the arena, the Greater Basilisk rampant in Hexside. It was then Luz knew where she was, she had seen plenty of movies and read enough books to know she was looking at her memories. The Dreamscape must be allowing her to literally walk down Memory Lane.

“I guess I don’t have to worry about studying for my tests anymore.” She muttered to herself. “I just need to read through my notes once, then I can come here and read through them again!”

Hello perfect score!

Luz continued on down the stairs, passing more and more memories. It was not hard to guess that the deeper she went, the older the memories became. When she reached the end of her memories of the Demon Realm and came to her memories of home, Luz felt her excitement quickly disappear. She saw her mom wishing her a good time at summer camp, that fateful meeting in the principal's office, and many more memories of her time in the human world that she did not want to see. Seeing a picture of her locker with the word “Luzer” painted on it, Luz turned around and jogged back up the stairs, not stopping until she was back in the Boiling Isles memories. Guilt washed over her like cold water as the thought registered in her mind she did not want to see anything that reminded her of her time back home.

Of course she missed her mom and her home where she grew up. But everything else? Luz shook her head. It was crazy, but if she was going to be honest with herself, the Boiling Isles felt like the place where she truly belonged. And that made her feel worse. Thankfully, her alarm blaring in her ear yanked Luz from the Dreamscape and sent her bolting upright in bed.

“ _ Luz Noceda, please report to Principal Bump’s office after the end of the third period. _ ”

The voice over the intercom startled Luz out of her reverie and she instantly shrank down in her chair when everyone looked at her quizzically. What had she done for Bump to see her so early in the day?

“Somebody’s in trouble.” Boscha said behind her in a sing-songy voice.

Luz shot a glare over her shoulder at the three-eyed witch and hunched forward in her seat in an attempt to look smaller. Her tablemate, a half-demon-half-witch student named Argenta, leaned over.

“Don’t worry, I got called in too. All of the Oracle track students are going to be meeting with Bump.” She was a tri-track student; Oracle, Potions, and Bard, which meant she and Luz had similar curriculars.

“Why?” Luz whispered back.

Argenta shook her head, her black hair held back by the two horns curling up from her forehead. “Someone from the Emperor’s Coven is going to be interviewing Oracle students about what they’ve learned this week. Has to do with a break-in at the Conformitorium last night.” Her gold eyes flashed in the classroom lights and her silver-frosted wolf tail flicked the air. “He had a weird tattoo on his face, a triangle with an eye in it.”

“Cyrus?”

“Yeah,” Argenta stared at Luz. “You know him?”

_ Unfortunately. _ Luz nodded in response, turning her attention back to the board when the teacher cleared her throat. What was Cyrus doing back here so soon? And why was he interviewing Oracle Track students? Unless...Luz glanced down at her school bag. She didn’t have the time to drop it off at her locker before the start of school, which meant she was still carrying all of her work. Including the prophecy she had written down in class.

Time was not on her side that day because the remainder of her home room potions class flew by, as did second period Construction training, which basically was the Hexside equivalent of art class. Normally, Luz enjoyed slapping the power glyphs onto her arms and chucking building material in an attempt to complete a house, but her mind was too preoccupied with her impending meeting. Which was probably why her two-story condo reformed into a gnome village. At least she got kudos for being creative. Even Mattholomuel held back on his normally snarky comments when he looked over her work.

“Not exactly the goal of the assignment, but, not bad for a human.”

Luz grunted out a thanks and wandered out of the room when the bell rang, her feet feeling like they were glued to the floor. She had just one class left before Bump’s office, and it was the one she had been both excited and terrified to attend today. Abomination Formulation. Even though Amity was indeed the top student of her track and had already advanced well past the basics of what went into an abomination formula, she had been selected by the professor to act as a Teacher’s Assistant, and was always willing to mentor their class’s only magic-less student. Under normal circumstances, Luz was beyond ecstatic to spend more time with her fellow Azura Book Club member. But, that was before she had openly confessed to Amity just how amazing she thought the witch was and had left her a rose on her windowsill. Luz face-palmed as she hurried past the lockers to her class. Why did she have to do that? Out of all the things she could have done, she had to pick the corniest and cliched gesture. Thanks to that, Amity probably thought she was making fun of her or was trying to oust whomever it was she had wanted to ask out to Grom.

A rock dropped in Luz’s stomach from the spike of disappointment and jealousy twisting in her mind. It hadn’t bothered her before knowing Amity had wanted to ask out another student or that she was afraid of being rejected by said student. Sure she was curious who it was, but she wanted to respect Amity’s feelings and let her tell her when she felt ready. As much as Luz loved a good mystery, she knew when there were lines she could not cross, contrary to popular belief, and this was not one she wanted to cross. Still, as she finally walked into the classroom and sat down in her respective seat, glancing up to see Amity talking quietly with the professor, Luz couldn’t help but wonder just what would have happened if Amity had asked her?

Sighing, Luz reached under her desk to pull out the large pot containing the starter for what would become her abomination. Hopefully, this one wouldn’t explode. Luz remembered the death stares the class had shot her way after the smoke had cleared, absolutely positive her human butt would be hauled to detention. The only one who wasn’t glaring at her with thinly veiled threats was Amity, who had the expression of someone who wanted to simultaneously strangle Luz and laugh with her. Instead, she just sighed and wiped the viscous formula from her face, telling her she would help clean up the mess. That had been two days after Grom.

At the front of the class, Amity nodded to their teacher and, as if knowing she was being watched, looked over her shoulder. Her amber eyes locked with Luz and the lid of the pot slipped in her suddenly sweaty fingers, dropping back onto the container with a bang.

“Miss Noceda,” the teacher shook his head as his abomination carried him to the board. “Please try not to destroy every possible abomination formula we have?”

“S-sorry sir!” Luz gingerly lifted the lid from the pot and set it on the floor under her table, kneeling down to avoid a repeat performance.

“Luz?”

The soft voice made Luz stand up quickly and ram her head against the underside of the table. Hissing, she pulled back and looked up to see Amity looking at her with concern. “Heeey, Amity. What’s...up?” She snapped a finger gun while rubbing her tender head with her free hand and dropped into her seat. Her heart proceeded to leap out of her chest to perform the kan-kan when Amity sat down beside her. Seriously, what was wrong with her? Luz grabbed the formula sheet for the class and began to scan the ingredients in an effort to look like she wasn’t at all nervous that Amity was in the same space as her.

“Are you alright?” Amity watched Luz fumble with a jar lid.

“Uh, yeah, totally fine! I’m a-okay! Just peachy!” Her grin was painfully wide. “How’re you doing? Sleep okay?” She regretted those words instantly as Amity’s face went completely nuclear, which didn’t help Luz’s racing heart with just how cute she looked. Friends, friends, they were friends.

“Fine!” Was the high-pitched response before Amity cleared her throat. “Fine. I take it you were able to get back to the Owl House safely?”

Luz nodded slowly, mentally counting backwards from ten to calm down. “Yup! Owlbert is a speedy flyer, I was back before anyone noticed.” Opening the jar, she began to measure out the required dosage of manticore venom and they both fell into a hushed silence as she concentrated on the assignment while Amity stood up and walked around the room to check everyone else’s progress. Following the ingredients listed, Luz set down the last vial she needed and watched the formula slowly congeal on itself from the reaction of everything she had put in. This part always made her nervous because if she had the formula right, then the next challenge would be to actually imprint her will to bring the abomination to life. And, if she had it wrong, then the class would have another reenactment of Mount Saint Abomi-Luz. Luz had previously tried to watch the writhing goop to see if it would give her a glyph she could use, but one had yet to show.

“What about the one I saw in the Dreamscape?” Luz had drawn it down in her notebook when she got back to the Owl House, but had been too tired to see what it could do. Taking her pad of paper out, Luz bent over the table and traced the odd assortment of intersecting lines while she listened to her abomination formula cook. No explosion yet, that was good. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Amity return to their table and, cautiously, look in the pot.

“Wow,”

Luz looked up quickly. “What? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, actually,” Amity gave her a surprised smile. “It looks like you actually have the formula right for this one. Nice job, Luz!”

Forgetting the glyph, Luz dropped her pencil and eagerly looked into the pot, almost bumping heads with Amity. “Really? Oh my gosh, this is so cool! So…” sticking her hand into the cold sludge, she looked expectantly at Amity. “Now what do I do?”

Thoughtfully, Amity looked from Luz to the formula and back. “Well, now we have to figure out a way how you can bring it to life and find a way to control it. Have you found a glyph you could use?” She looked at the one Luz had been working on. “That looks...interesting. Where did you find that one?”

“In the Dreamscape.”  _ When I was with you. _ Luz kept that last part out, but still felt her face flush at the memory and quickly turned away before Amity could see. “I haven’t tried it out yet, but maybe it could - ”

“ _ Guuuuuugh _ ,”

Luz and Amity looked at each other. “That wasn’t me,”

The sound of a bubble popping from the container made them turn to the writhing formula, where a single glowing eye rolled up at them. Luz’s jaw hit the ground. Was...was that? Amity grasped her free hand, making her heart shoot to her throat, and a mouth split the formula to form a low groan.

“Luz, you’re doing it!”

Words failed Luz as she just gaped at the face of the abomination slowly forming in the pot to stare up at her as if waiting for her command. No flipping way. Cupping her hand in the goop, Luz lifted a large wad of formula to her face, feeling Amity’s fingers close around hers.

“Imagine it taking shape,” Amity’s voice had taken on a mentoring tone as she reached a hand over Luz’s arm to hover over the ball of goop. “Picture the form for it to take, but keep your mind clear of everything else. Focus your will into it as if it’s body was your own.”

A clear mind was the last thing Luz felt she could maintain at the moment, Amity’s fingers lacing tightly with hers, but still she tried, closing her eyes and sending every ounce of willpower she had into the clammy sludge. She felt her heart hammering inside her chest and took a deep breath, forcing the beating to slow, and imagined it in her hand. What felt like an eternity later, though it had probably been no more than five minutes, Luz felt a tiny beat against her palm, and she peeked an eye open. There, standing like a toy on her open hand, was a small, lumpy, three-eyed abomination.

“Congratulations, Miss Noceda!” The professor appeared at her side. “You’ve succeeded in your first abomination!”

“I,” She stared at the petite gollum.

“And without the assistance of a magic bile sac or one of your paper glyphs! Keep it up, and you just might pass my class!” Nodding to Amity, the professor’s abomination carried him back towards his desk. Luz just stood there, her mouth hanging open as she tried to process through her lagging brain just how in the heck she had managed to succeed in finally creating an abomination. She felt Amity tighten her grip and she turned to see the witch smiling at her, not noticing the abomination’s body waver.

“Luz, that’s amazing!” She pulled her hand away to lean over the pot to check the contents. “Do you think you could do it again?”

“Um,” Luz put her hand down on the table, missing the warmth. “I think, but I don’t know how - ” A violet light flared up from the table surface and the next thing Luz knew, she was projected straight up to the ceiling, like she had been yanked by a cable. Then, that invisible cable snared her front and pulled her right back down, landing head-first in the vat of abomination sludge.

The professor’s abomination rotated on its heels as he took in the sight of Luz’s lower half sticking out of the pot, her feet pedaling in the air over the lip, and he sighed. “There goes another starter.”

By the time Amity had finally succeeded in pulling Luz from the purple goop and guided her to the girl’s locker room to shower off, class had ended and it was time for her to meet with Bump. “I’ll go tell him what happened and,” Amity looked over Luz’s stained clothes. “See if he has another Hexside uniform to spare.”

“Thanks Amity,” Luz kept her eyes on the tiled floor, mostly because she could barely open them from the excess goo, but also out of pure embarrassment. Once she heard Amity’s footsteps disappear from the locker room, Luz ducked into the nearest shower stall, peeling off her sticky uniform and tossing it over the side. Cranking on the hot water, Luz scrubbed at the abomination stuck to her skin, pumping as much soap out of the nearby dispenser as she could and lathering it in her hair. Why did abomination magic have to be so messy? And what the heck happened back there? That wasn’t an explosion from her abomination formula, otherwise the classroom would have been full of the stuff. The only things she had on the table had been her list, the ingredients, and…her eyes widened. The glyph from the Dreamscape.

The locker room door opened and Amity’s voice echoed through the space. “Luz? Bump didn’t have a spare multi-track set, so I had to borrow a single-track uniform, I hope that’s okay? Also, he’s good if you’re late-”

“Amity!” Excitement taking over, Luz shut off the water and shoved open the shower stall door, sending clouds of steam everywhere. “That glyph I showed you in class? I think that’s what tossed me up in the air! It must have something to do with force! I’m not really sure how it works yet but,” She stopped when she saw Amity standing stock-still, face burning red with her eyes glued to the ceiling, holding an Abomination Track uniform in her arms, and then she looked down. Oops.

Even after she found her towel, dried off in the shower, tugged the spare uniform from Amity’s stiff fingers, and dressed, it took a few minutes to get the catatonic witch to move, and that was after Luz had to tow her out of the locker room by her arm. Thankfully, by the time they made it to Principal Bump’s office Amity was able to form coherent words again.

“So sorry about that Amity,” Luz had released her arm when they left the locker room, but Amity had still elected to escort her to Bump’s office. Neither of them could meet the other’s eyes without both their faces turning into tomatoes, so Luz stared down the hall until the door to Bump’s door came into view. Giving the magneta sleeve of her temporary uniform a tug, Luz pulled open the door and shot a quick look at the green-haired witch. “Thanks again for the uniform and for walking with me to the office. I’m sorry I kept you from class.”

Amity cleared her throat in an attempt to find her voice. “Um, that’s okay Luz, it’s my study period, so you’re not keeping me from anything.” Tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, Amity took a step like she was about to leave, then turned back to Luz. “Luz, about last night, I-”

“There you are!”

The girls looked up as Bump walked through the door, staring at Luz. “Ah, I’m glad to see you were able to make yourself presentable for our guest. He has given me every assurance the Emperor’s Coven will not have your name in the list of students he will be speaking with.” Bump then nodded to Amity. “Thank you, Miss Blight, you may wait here in the office for the remainder of your study period, if you wish?”

“Oh, thank you Principal Bump,” she spared a glance at Luz and shook her head. “But I don’t want to get in the way. I’ll see you later, Luz.” With that, the witch about-faced and retreated down the hall to wherever her chosen study spot would be.

Luz had to bite back a sigh as she watched Amity leave, but Bump’s hand on her shoulder broke her thoughts and she followed him into the office, worried just what the Coven would want with her prophecy. At least she had found the time to stick her journal into her locker between classes. No one would be able to read it there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since we have yet to see much of Abominations, other than episode 3, I took a couple creative liberties with how I imagined Luz in the class, of course with Amity. Plenty of things happened in this chapter, but I promise they will all come together!  
> Hope you all didn’t mind my sneaking in my witchsona into the chapter...I can’t draw her, but I can write her! I’ll leave it at that.  
> See you all in the next chapter!


	9. Glyphs and Ladders

Amity struggled to not look over her shoulder when she walked away from Luz as the human followed Principal Bump into his office. How badly she wanted to talk about the events of last night, what they had said to each other. For Titan’s same, they _slept together_ ! Her ears burned at the thought of those words. No, not that kind of sleeping together! She did not even want to entertain that thought, let alone say those two words out loud! _Snuggle_ , they had snuggled together. While that did little to help her panicking heart, she at least felt her face cool down. Sighing, Amity walked to her locker and tickled the red creature’s face, selecting her notebook and texts for Advanced Spelling. There were still some spells she fully did not have the hang of, and she had an idea for one that she could possibly combine with her abomination, something for the final this term?

Walking to the room where she usually chose for study period, Amity stopped when she saw Boscha and her crew lounging on the desks tapping at their scrolls. No doubt they had finagled the unused room for socializing thanks to Boscha’s jock status. Clenching her books to her chest, Amity turned on her heel and walked away. At least when _she_ was captain of the grudgby team, she didn’t use her status for free time to socialize.

The library was an idea, for not point five seconds, until she realized the Illusion Track had claimed it for a guest lecture from the Coven head. As much as Amity was not in the mood to deal with Boscha’s cronies, she was less pleased with facing the likely teasing of her older siblings. As carefully as she could, Amity backed out of the library while keeping her eyes out for her troublemaking brother and sister. She should have taken up Bump’s offer after all, none of the quiet areas she preferred were available, and Amity liked it quiet when she studied. Maybe she could just go back to his office and ask if she could change her answer? Sure Luz was there, but as far as she was aware now, Amity was long gone. Less chance of her doing something distractingly adorable...right? Rolling her eyes at her inner monologue, Amity quickly headed off in the direction of Bump’s office, hoping Luz was not getting into trouble after only ten minutes of being by herself.

* * *

Luz followed Bump through the door into the small waiting room sectioned off from his office, taking a seat when he told her it would be a couple minutes. She shifted in her chair, playing with the cuffs of her sleeves. It felt weird to be wearing a single track uniform, temporary or not. Her multi-track colors were a part of her identity as both the first human student and first student to study all tracks. To suddenly look like a student with just one track made her feel uncomfortable. Still, it was nice that Amity volunteered to get her a clean uniform instead of leaving her to wear a gloopy one. Luz wondered if the Abomination color was just the first one available that Amity could find, or if she had picked it for a reason? She didn’t think Amity would be trying to hint that she should just take one track, right?

 _Of course not!_ Luz slapped her cheeks. _She was just being nice! She could have grabbed any track uniform and I'd be happy with it!_ With that in mind, Luz settled back in her seat to wait her turn. It was not much longer before the door opened and an Oracle student walked out.

“Barcus!”

The canine dual-track student blinked and looked at Luz, his muzzle splitting into his version of a smile as he barked a greeting at her. He trotted up to her and Luz could see he had replaced his broken glasses with a new set. She gave him a scratch under his chin and he shook his head.

“Heya bud, looks like you got pulled in too?”

Barcus huffed in affirmation, looking from Luz to the door and back.

“Yeah, I guess I’m next. I don’t get why all of the students in the track have to meet with him. Not sure what he’s looking for.” Seeing Bump standing in the doorway, Luz sighed and got to her feet. “See you later, bud!” She heard Barcus yip a farewell and followed Bump into his office.

Cyrus was standing in front of the window with his hands clasped behind his back, staring out at the school grounds. His helmet sat on the side of Bump’s large desk, as well as what Luz guessed was the crystal ball containing his oracle. A spiderweb fissure spread over the top of the orb, making Luz wonder what would have happened that could damage something that housed an oracle?

“It was in the early days when I joined the Coven.”

Luz jolted at the unexpected response and Cyrus turned around, an apologetic smile on his face.

“Oh right, sorry, I forget you’re new to the mind-reading. I’ll try to not be so invasive. Would you like to sit?” He gestured to the chair across the desk and Luz nodded, slowly sitting down as Cyrus took the seat normally occupied by Bump. The two witches nodded at each other and Bump excused himself, closing the door behind him.

“So, Luz Noceda, we meet again.” Cyrus leaned back in the chair, resting his hand on the cracked orb. “Would you be comfortable if I summoned my oracle for this meeting?”

Luz shrugged. “Sure,”

“Thank you. Leota?”

The familiar dark purple smoke hissed out from around the crystal ball as a large oracle rose from the cracked surface and hovered at its master’s side. Surprisingly, Luz could not see either of the creature’s eyes, as its entire upper face was wrapped in the mummy-like bandages, yet she still had the feeling it could see her.

“This is my oracle, Leota,” Cyrus gestured with a gloved hand. “She has been with me since the day I graduated Hexside and has never steered me wrong. You could almost say she is the palisman I never had.” He caught the confused look Luz was giving him and smiled wryly. “When I graduated the...ancient wood needed to construct a palisman was in short supply, reserved only for the most powerful of the Emperor’s Coven. Even with the pull my family had, I still could not gain my own palisman. So instead, I chose to have Leota act as one for me.” He nodded to the ghostly figure. “And in all our battles together, she has never failed to keep me safe. Speaking of which,”

Luz fought to stay still as Cyrus turned his gaze to her, trying to think of something, anything, to clear her mind.

“As I’m sure you have been told by your fellow students, I am here to interview those part of the Oracle track regarding the lessons you have had this week. During our investigation, it was learned someone broke into the closet containing Hexside’s collection of oracles. I’d like to know why. When I was here yesterday, I was told the Oracle class had been practicing the art of summoning prophecies of the self.” The witch tilted his head slightly, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “My best guess is that one of the students may have learned something vitaly important, why else would the door to the vault be left open?”

“Maybe it was a trick?” Luz volunteered, mentally reading through chapter 5 of the third Azura book. “Maybe someone wanted to throw off the scent?”

Cyrus nodded. “That’s a good point, and I thought the same thing. Until the Conformitorium was attacked last night and someone stole information about the whereabouts of a dangerous artifact.”

The palms of Luz’s hands suddenly felt very sweaty. She did not want to say anything, but, the more she listened, the more she felt her prophecy just might have to do with this. “What is the artifact?”

“I’m...not sure.” Cyrus looked at Leota. “The information was reserved for high-level members of the Coven. Despite my ability to read minds, I’m still the level of a Grunt. But, I am curious as to why you’re thinking about Azura’s battle against Hecate in the Mountain of Madness with Amity’s voice as the narrator.”

All of the blood flushed from Luz’s face. _Oh crammity._ “I thought you said you wouldn’t read my mind?”

“I said I’d try to be less invasive. But that’s a little hard to be when the one I’m interviewing is more uptight than our coven’s ex-leader, Lilith Clawthorne.” His eyes slid to her’s. “What is it that you’re worried I will see? I can assure you nothing will be shared with the Coven that will jeopardize the safety of you and your family. Why are you trying to avoid thinking about Alador and Odalia’s youngest?”

Luz clenched her fists against the sides of her chair until she felt her nails bite into her palms. “I-that is-she-we’re,” she stopped and took a breath. “Amity is helping me break down a prophecy I was given from my oracle in class earlier this week. She’s been tutoring me with abominations and offered to help me with my oracle work as well.”

“I see,” Cyrus rested his elbows on the desk. “Why were you trying to avoid me reading your thoughts about her?” 

“You grew up with her, you know her parents wouldn’t be happy if they learned she was spending her time with someone like me.”

Cyrus raised an eyebrow. “Someone like you? I fail to see why they would not approve of a student learning to master all the tracks offered at Hexside. Granted, you being responsible for breaking out and apprenticing under Public Enemy No. 1 would be something less than desirable to the Blight family. But, a human with the ability to perform magic? That’s a remarkable quality. And if there is one thing I know, Alador Blight is a scholar through and through. Odalia may be the dragon guarding the family treasure, but Alador was never one to turn down anything of interest.”

The mental image of Amity dressed up as a princess with her mother’s face attached to a dragon’s body had Luz wanting to double over giggling and blush furiously at the same time. Especially when her imagination had herself dressed as a knight charging forth to rescue said princess. If Cyrus was reading her mind, he chose not to say anything, and Luz appreciated that.

“Now, would you mind telling me this prophecy of yours that had you asking the school’s top student for help?”

Luz swallowed. “I, uh, left it in my locker.” She saw the Coven member slump back in his chair, a suddenly exhausted look on his face. “Whoa, you okay?”

“Yes, I’m fine, I just,” he rubbed his temple and winced. “I took a hard spill from the intruder last night, maintaining my ability to read minds had been draining.”

“You mean, you can’t read my mind for the prophecy?”

Cyrus shook his head. “I can read present thoughts, not memories. If you don’t believe what you were told is not significant, then I won’t pressure you to remember it.”

Was he really giving her an out? Luz gaped at the Coven member, not sure what to say to that. Of course she wanted to keep a tight lid on it, but at the same time, if it would help find whoever had broken into the school, she couldn’t bear the thought of standing on the side lines and doing nothing. 

“Well, I think I might be able to remember it. The prophecy my oracle gave me.” When Cyrus looked at her, she cleared her throat and recited the entire prophecy word for word. There was no way she could forget it, she had read that thing almost as many times as the first Azura book! Still, Luz did her best to pause between verses so it would not seem like she had it memorised. Once she was done, Cyrus slowly leaned forward, his eyes trailing between Luz and his oracle.

“That is...a very interesting prophecy for an oracle to recite. And, you’re saying Amity is helping you with, what exactly?”

“Trying to break it down.”

“Have you had much luck with that?”

Luz tapped her fingers together as she considered her words carefully. “Sort of...I think it has to do with dreams? I found out about something called the Dreamscape, but, that’s it.”

For a long moment, Cyrus was silent as he mulled over Luz’s answers. The tattoo on his forehead had long since lost its glowing light, but Luz still had to avoid looking at it as it made her feel like it too was studying her.

“I’ve not heard about the Dreamscape for a very long time. The part of worlds colliding, stars crossing, that must have to do with the upcoming Firestorm, which no doubt you and Miss Blight already discovered.” He looked at Luz and she nodded. “But, that final line, ‘something weird this way comes’ that has me concerned.”

Doing her best not to squirm, Luz clasped her hands together to keep them still. “Why? Why does ‘weird’ sound bad?”

“Because, the last time two worlds collided, a demon almost took control of your realm.”

The school bell shrieked out in the halls, pulling their attention from their conversation and the door to the office creaked open for Bump to walk back in. “Ah, Cyrus, did you and Miss Noceda have a productive meeting?”

The two looked at each other and Cyrus slowly smiled. “Yes, thank you very much for letting me borrow your student for the period.” He nodded to Luz and stood, she followed suit. “Thank you, Luz, for agreeing to meet with me today. I’m certain I will see you again soon.”

“Y-you’re welcome,” Suddenly eager to get out of the room, Luz backed away and out the door, pivoting to dart into the hall.

“Luz!”

She froze mid-step as Amity appeared at her side, her books in her arms. “Amity? I thought you were going to study?”

“I couldn’t find a free room, so I came back and asked Principal Bump if I could borrow the waiting room.”

Which meant she probably heard everything Luz and Cyrus had said.

“Oh,” Luz felt her face pink and looked away. “So...did you...um...did you get done what you wanted?” The look Amity gave her was a curious one that she didn't quite get, then it turned into that small half-smile that made her stomach quiver.

“You could say that. Come on, let’s get to lunch before all the good food is taken.”

The two students jogged out of the room and away from the office. Principal Bump turned back to the office interior to see Cyrus had returned to looking out the window, but his oracle still hovered over its orb.

“Are you ready for the next student?”

The Coven member turned around and looked as if he had momentarily forgotten what was to happen. “Oh, yes, please send them in.” Bump nodded and dipped back out, closing the door behind him, and Cyrus turned to the window. So, Luz Noceda had been given a prophecy of the Dreamscape and no doubt, she was already exploring its secrets. Which meant he would need to act fast if he was to be ready in time for the Firestorm. Weirdness was coming. He had seen what it could do to unsuspecting worlds, heard the rumors of those unprepared for its raw power, so he would need to be prepared.

“We have a lot of work to do Leota,” he whispered under his breath as the door opened for the next Oracle Track student to walk in and he turned around. “A lot of work.”

* * *

“What do you mean a demon almost took over the human world?” Gus stared at Luz from across their lunch table, the straw for his juice box dangling off his lip. “How is that possible? And why didn’t I know about it?”

Luz shrugged. “I didn’t even think it was possible! But I guess it does make sense. Eda probably isn’t the first witch to have a portal to the human world, but from what Cyrus said, I don’t think it was as simple. All I can say is it’s the first time I’ve learned about it.” She glanced at Willow and Amity for their opinions, but Willow shook her head.

“I never heard about anything like that, so it either was entirely on the human side of whatever portal was opened or this happened before our time. I could ask my dads if they know anything, but I’m going to guess not.”

Humming thoughtfully, Amity leaned back in her chair. “You said Cyrus was concerned about the ‘something weird this way comes’, right?”

“Yeah,” Luz nodded. “That’s what led him to bringing up the demon trying to take over the human world bit. Have you heard about it?”

“Sort of...it was back when I was training under Lilith’s tutelage.” Amity’s eyes darkened for a moment as she thought of what her ex-mentor had done to use Luz not only for bait to catch Eda, but actually attempted to kill her. Clenching her fist, she pushed those thoughts away and cleared her throat. “It was in this big book she kept with her, something like a personal tome of spells she had learned in the Emperor’s Coven. I only caught a few glimpses of it, but it spoke of an ancient demon that lived not in the physical world, but the realm of the mind.”

Willow frowned. “Kinda like the Dreamscape?”

“Yes and no. I can’t remember what it was called, but this demon could only survive as a living entity outside of its home world in this mind realm. It had a name, but in the writings that I could find, it was known as the Demon of Weird.”

“I’m going to guess that demon’s version of weird is different from my kind of weird?” Luz asked.

Amity nodded. “Extremely. To the point where nothing made sense to the furthest degree and those who were affected by its power lost their sanity, went ‘mad’ if you will.” She tapped the table with a finger as she mulled over the information. “If that’s what the last line of the prophecy is talking about, then the Firestorm and the Portal Key must somehow play into what could happen. But,” Amity sighed and rested her elbows on the table. “We’re still missing quite a lot.”

“Well then, what if we went to the Owl House after school and asked Lilith if we could borrow her book?”

The three witchlings stared at Luz as if she had suddenly drawn a spell circle in the air all by herself. Gus was the first to break the stunned silence.

“You want us to go talk to the witch who threatened your life and forced us to deliver the message to Eda?”

Luz winced. “Well, when you say it that way, it sounds bad. But, to be fair to Lilith...no, wait, that was worse. Lemme try again,” she shifted in her seat. “You guys didn’t see what Lilith did after the Emperor betrayed her. She gave everything up to help me and Eda escape, she split the curse with Eda so she wouldn’t be stuck as the Owl Beast forever. I’m not saying I’ve forgiven her completely, I’m still pretty sore about it all, but at least she’s trying to make things right! That’s got to say something? I won’t try to make you guys forgive her either, but if Lilith knows anything about this Weird Demon and the Dreamscape, then I think we should talk to her about it. And..Eda too.”

“Luz, are you sure about that?”

Nodding, Luz turned to Amity. “Yeah, I think it’s time I came clean with her, especially after what happened in class with that new glyph -”

“You have a new glyph?” Gus practically vaulted over his lunch tray with excitement. “Is that why you’re not wearing your uniform?”

Both Amity and Luz went bright red thinking about what happened in the locker room, which Willow did not miss, but decided to log away for later. She had been curious why Luz looked so clean and fresh early in the day.

“Um, yeah,” Pushing her bangs from her hair, Luz pulled out her glyph pad and traced out the intricate pattern. “I found it in the Dreamscape last night and decided to test it out during Abominations, thinking it would help me finally create one.”

“Which you did,” interjected Gus. “Willow and I heard all about it!”

“Yeah,” Luz blushed sheepishly, and continued to draw the glyph. “But it wasn’t from this, though I’m not sure how, since I don’t have a bile sac. I guess I just finally got the formula right? All thanks to Miss Top Student!” She teasingly elbowed a pink-faced Amity.

Looking down at the strange glyph, Gus frowned. “So then, what does this thing do?”

“Don’t touch it!’ Luz yelped when the witchling reached for it, earning a few curious stares. “I’m not sure exactly what it does, but when I tapped it...well…” She looked at Amity, since all she really saw was the classroom blur around her and then nothing but abomination sludge.

“There was this big flash of purple light that tossed her straight up into the air, almost like a forcefield.” Drawing a spell circle, Amity’s magic formed into a miniature of Luz being projected to the presumed classroom ceiling and falling headfirst into the mixing vat. “Then, the air pulled her back down in a vacuum, but no wind. I’ve never seen anything like it before.”

Willow stared at her as Gus sat back. “And you saw this in the Dreamscape? A glyph that pushes and pulls? Weird…”

“Right,” Carefully closing the pad of paper, Luz tucked it back into her pocket and looked at her friends. “I’m still super excited about our sleepover and trying to figure out more about the Dreamscape, but I’m thinking it would be a good idea to talk to Lilith and Eda about it. Maybe not tell them why we’re doing the sleepover, but try to find out at least a little bit more before we go in.” Her grin faltered at the confused looks being sent her way. “What? What’d I do?” She yelped when Willow tapped her forehead.

“Who are you, and what have you done with Luz?”

Luz swatted her hand away. “What the heck are you talking about? I’m just trying to be careful here!”

“Exactly! Why are you all of a sudden trying to be careful with this idea? You’re usually so…” Willow paused. “What’s the best word to use?”

“Impulsive?” Gus volunteered.

“Quirky?” Luz asked.

“Adorable,” Amity’s face turned tomato -red. “I-I mean stubborn!” She shot Willow a warning look when the girl bit back a snort.

“I guess all of those. So, what’s up Luz? Why try to be so careful?”

Sighing, Luz slumped forward. “After hearing Cyrus say all those things, I guess it just reminded me too much of when I tried to think on my feet and steal the Healing Hat for Eda. I wasn’t careful, didn’t think things through like I should have, and messed everything up! I just don’t want to cause anyone any more harm for my stupid mistake. If this prophecy thing is actually something real, then this demon Cyrus was talking about must be dangerous, and I don’t want it to come here. That’s why I want to talk to Lilith. If you guys don’t want to go with me, I won’t make you, but,” she looked at them and stopped when her gaze fell to Amity. “I’d really like it if you were with me.”

Well aware of the blush igniting her face, Amity looked away, pointedly avoiding Willow’s knowing grin, and sighed. “Okay Luz, but if Lilith talks to me, I refuse to be warm.” She squeaked when Luz yanked her into a hug.

“Good enough for me!”

Willow and Gus were quick to say they would go as well and the four agreed to meet up at the end of school by the front steps. The rest of the day went by about as normal of a pace as it could when going to a purely magic school, now that Luz had the meeting with Cyrus over and done with. She was surprised to not see the Coven member at all during her lessons, aside from the occasional Oracle Track student going to and fro Bump’s office when summoned. Either there was still more information Cyrus wanted or he was a stickler for checking off every possible answer from his list. By the time Luz grabbed her book bag from her locker and was jogging down the steps to meet up with her friends, Cyrus was nothing more than a blip on the horizon flying back to the Conformitorium.

“Thanks again for grabbing me a clean uniform,” she whispered to Amity as they walked down the path towards the Owl House, her gooey multi-track uniform balled up in a sack in her book bag. Too bad there were no glyphs for instantly cleaning abomination muck from clothes, that would have been helpful today.

“Of course! Though I’m starting to think you like being covered in abomination formula.”

“Is this about me pretending to be Willow’s abomination? I got her a top score!”

“Only because you cheated.” Amity shoulder-bumped Luz. “And you got me in trouble with Principal Bump.”

Catching herself, Luz grinned deviously at the green-haired witch. “Right, and that never happens because you’re Little Miss Perfect with your straight A’s and straight hair.”

Willow snickered and muttered something under her breath.

“What was that?!”

The plant witch squeaked at the abomination bursting from the ground at her feet and the murderous glint in Amity’s eyes. However, the nuclear-hot blush swarming her face ruined the threatening look and Willow burst out laughing, disappearing into a giant flower bud that closed around her and yanked her beneath the abomination’s feet, depositing her a safe distance away down the path.

“Get back here!” Amity yelled, tearing off after her with her abomination lumbering along.

Luz and Gus watched the two withclings run about the path and looked at each other.

“Okay, what just happened?”

Gus had heard what Willow said, but he had a feeling it would not be wise to add fuel to the fire. Especially if said fire was the risk of facing Amity’s wrath. “I don’t know. But we should probably catch up with them before someone gets hurt. Like Amity.”

Nodding, Luz raced off down the path with Gus hot on her heels as they listened to Amity’s verbal threats while Willow continued laughing.

“I’m sorry! You just make it too easy!”

“Why don’t you come down off that tree and say that again? Since I’m ‘so easy’?”

“No thanks! I’m perfectly happy up - hey! Hey! That’s cheating!”

Up ahead, Luz saw Amity’s abomination vigorously shaking a thick tree while the witch glared up at the branches. Whatever Willow had muttered clearly got under Amity’s skin, but she seriously wasn’t going to hurt her so soon after repairing their friendship. Right? She then watched Amity start to scale up the tree, using her abomination like a ladder, but when she reached for the branch Willow was comfortably perched on, it bent out of reach.

“Sorry! No grumpy witchlings allowed!”

Amity audibly growled and lunged for the branch, but missed and, to Luz’s horror, slipped from her abomination’s shoulders. Thinking fast, Luz grabbed her glyph pad from her bag and, ripping the paper off the rings, slapped it and hurled it under the falling witch. The burst of violet light ballooned under Amity’s back, projecting her and the abomination straight up, and then yanked them to the ground. Only, Luz had managed to launch herself forward just in time for the vacuum to catch Amity and roll beneath to cushion her from the fall. Unfortunately, that meant all of Amity’s weight dropped down onto Luz and knocked every ounce of air from her lungs. The poor abomination was not so lucky and burst apart when it slammed into the ground, globs of goop raining down. It was that precise moment that Hooty decided to greet them.

“Hey guys! How’s every-” A large blob smacked him right in the face. “Why’d it get so dark all of a sudden? And wet? Luz? Hello?”

Despite Amity currently crushing her stomach, Luz could not help but laugh as the house demon wiggled about to shake off the abomination remains. Meanwhile, Amity had started to sit up and realized just who had broken her fall.

“Luz! I’m so sorry,”

Luz wrapped her arms around her shoulders and pulled her down just as another blob sailed through the air, missing them both by mere inches. “I think that one had a rock in it. You okay, Amity?” She tilted her head to look down right as Amity was lifting her head from where it had been resting on Luz’s chest. Their eyes met and they froze, hearts thundering at the slow realization of the position they were literally in.

When Luz had pulled Amity down to avoid the barrage of goop, she had shifted her so that the witch’s body was fully resting on top of her, her legs dangling off to the side. Luz’s arms were wrapped snugly around Amity’s shoulders to keep her secure, leaving very little space between their faces. Amity tried to find something coherent to say, but all that came out was a squeak.

“Um, I think we should head on inside.” Slowly, Luz sat up and scooted Amity out of her lap so she could stand, helping the catatonic witch to her feet. While Hooty did his best to shake off the muck still covering his face, the four friends continued on down the path towards the Owl House that was now finally in sight. Glancing over at the two girls, Gus carefully reached up and poked Amity in the shoulder. No response.

“Luz,” He said slowly. “I think you broke Amity.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor Amity...I’m not trying to be cruel! It’s just too easy. So, any thoughts yet on what the new glyph is? Let me know what you think, and I’ll see you in the next chapter!


	10. Push and Pull

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this one took a while to write. Build ups can make for tricky chapters...but it will all be worth it!

In all the time that Luz had known Eda, she was usually quick to come up with some sort of response, whether it was a snarky comeback or a rare moment of serious information she could take to heart. It was not that often the Owl Lady took her time to think over what she would say before she said it, and even less often if that silence lasted more than thirty seconds. The fact she had been quiet for going on now five minutes made Luz feel jittery and nervous.

When Luz had managed to get the door open with Hooty’s neck still elongated, Eda and King had been quick to note her change in uniform. That of course then led to Luz having to explain why she had to change, which went into where she found the glyph. Lilith had joined them after Eda called her name, saying she needed to hear this as well, which meant Luz was stuck waiting for the response of both of them. It did not help that she was sitting on the couch with Amity, Willow, and Gus while the Clawthorne sisters stood in front of them. King had elected to search for snacks in the kitchen, but Luz knew he was simply trying to avoid what most likely would become a serious discussion where he was not the subject.

“So, let me get this straight kid,” Pinching the bridge of her nose, Eda looked over her fingers at her apprentice. “For the past two nights, you've been running around this Dreamscape because of the Portal Key I gave you? And last night you found a new glyph and decided to try it out and nearly blew up the classroom?”

Luz felt the best thing she could do at this point was nod. “That basically sums it up.”

The Owl Lady sighed. “While I respect your following my example of inadvertently destroying a classroom-”

“Please, Edalyn, when you did it, it was on purpose.”

“Allegedly. No one was able to prove I had a motive, not like I needed one.” Eda returned her gaze to Luz. “Trying out a new glyph like that was way too risky. What if someone from the Emperor’s Coven saw it and started snooping around?”

“Actually,” Luz winced. “They already did.”

The sisters looked at each other. “Luz,” Lilith said slowly. “Why didn’t you tell us this before?”

“I wanted to, but you wouldn’t listen! I was trying to tell you about the Dreamscape yesterday morning, but you said it was nothing to worry about. So,” Luz shrugged. “I decided to figure it out myself.”

Eda crossed her arms over her chest, looking away to hide the guilt in her face, and to avoid the knowing look she was getting from Lilith. The fact she had only encouraged Luz to pursue it further by denying her the truth made it worse. She had to admit to herself she was proud of the kid for wanting to learn more, but not when it came to something as powerful, and dangerous, as the Dreamscape. “Look kiddo,” she sighed, turning back to Luz. “I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you earlier. I was hoping you would just drop the idea and move on, clearly I forgot who I was talking to.” Grinning, the Owl Lady tousled the human’s already messy hair, making Luz chuckle in response. “But the Dreamscape is not just some playground you can run around in. It’s a dangerous world where witches have lost their minds and been trapped in dreams where they can’t even tell what’s real and what’s not.”

“Then, teach me!” Luz stood up from the couch, taking the Portal Key out of her shirt to hold it up. “Why can I go in and out of the Dreamscape with the key? Did you know it could do this when you got it? How come it only now started working this way?”

“Whoa there buckaroo,” Eda placed her hands on Luz’s shoulders and gently pushed her back to sit on the couch. “One question at a time. I promise I’ll tell you what you need to know. But first,” she looked at Lilith. “Why was the Emperor’s Coven at Hexside?”

“They were investigating a break-in,” Gus said. “Someone messed up Principal Bump’s office and the storage closet for the Oracle Track was left open. But, nothing was missing.”

Lilith hummed thoughtfully, resting her chin on her fist. “Interesting. Who was leading the investigation?”

“Cyrus Eldritch.”

A surprised snort came from Eda. “Cybie-wybie?” 

Luz blinked. “Cybie?”

“Wybie?” Amity finished. “You know him?”

“Yeah,” Eda snorted, wiping her eyes. “Dork walked around the school saying he could read our thoughts. Too bad he couldn’t read mine to find out where I stuffed his book bag after snitching on me for the Noodle Incident. FYI, it was in the griffin stables.”

“Um,” Luz frowned. “I think we might be talking about a different Cyrus...this one grew up with Amity.”

“Ah yes, his son,” Lilith cut in while her sister continued laughing at the memory. “Cyrus William Eldritch III, as he is formally named.”

“Like there needed to be more of those nutters.”

Shooting a glance at Eda, Lilith continued. “Cyrus is indeed a strong witch in the Emperor’s Coven and, unlike his father, he was able to fully tap into the mind-reading ability that runs in his family’s blood. Interesting that he was selected to lead the investigation, last I saw of him he was researching some ruins recently discovered in the Skull. Quite the accomplished oracle user too. Did he,” she gestured to Luz. “Know who you are? If I remember anything about Cyrus, he was quite the detailed researcher and never left a stone unturned.”

“Yeah, he was meeting with all the students in the Oracle track today to find out what we had learned this week. But, he promised he wouldn’t give my identity to the Coven. He’s a fan of the Owl Lady.”

“Huh, a dork with good taste.”

Lilith shot Eda a look. “And, what did you tell him?”

Sighing, Luz recounted the entire prophecy, once again word for word, for Lilith and Eda. When she finished, both sisters were quiet, mulling over the words as they shot each other glances in a silent conversation Luz could barely comprehend. She glanced at her friends in the hopes any of them could say something. Silence had never suited the human and it was making her really uncomfortable. Fortunately, Amity took the hint.

“We’ve gathered somewhat of a hypothesis as to what this is all about. For starters, the part of worlds colliding and stars crossing must be linked to the upcoming Firestorm Festival next week. Old and young turned so fowl, that has to be linked to your curse somehow.” She flinched back at the startled looks from the Clawthorne sisters. “Luz filled us in on the details,” her gaze hardened on Lilith. “All of them. Anyways, ‘turn the key or the dream be lost’ is for certain the Portal Key and the Dreamscape.”

“After I met with Cyrus today,” Luz added in. “He talked about this demon that tried to take over the human world and Amity said it was known as the Demon of Weird. That can’t be a coincidence if the last line is -”

“‘Something weird this way comes…’” Eda finished, her eyes snapping to Lilith in another silent exchange, and then to Luz. “Luz, you’re sure that’s what your oracle told you in class?”

“Yeah, I wrote it all down.” Digging through her bag, Luz pulled out the notebook and handed it to Eda to read. “I’ve added all my notes, plus what Amity, Gus, and Willow have come up with, but we’re kinda hitting a dead end.”

Frowning at the page, Eda scanned the words before passing it to Lilith. “Here, you’re the studious one, you read it. Right now,” Lacing her fingers, the Owl Lady pushed her hands out to crack her knuckles. “Mama’s gotta see what this new glyph can do.”

“What?” Luz gaped at her as she strode across the room and opened the door. “Now?”

“Yeah, now, I want to see this thing in action! Since we’re all going to be learning glyphs together, might as well start today.” Eda waved her hand to the expansive yard outside. “What are you waiting for? An engraved invitation?”

Luz looked from Lilith to her friends to Eda, and down at her uniform. “Uh, could I at least change first?”

“Yeah, yeah, sure, go skedaddle up for a wardrobe swap. Everyone else,” Eda clicked her tongue and jabbed her thumb to the door. “Time for some spur-of-the-moment training! Skootle those bootles!”

The three young witchlings looked at each other and, shrugging, stood up and headed out the door. All save for Amity whom Eda caught by the arm and held back for a moment.

“Listen Minty-Fresh, I know Luz went to your house last night.”

Amity felt her face ignite in a blush. “Wh-wh-wh-wha? How did you-?”

“Kid thinks she’s so slick, but I know when my palisman is taken out for a joyride. Dunno what she was planning or what ‘girly talk’ you two were up to, but I’ll tell you this,” the low tone sent a foreboding chill down Amity’s spine. “If you hurt her, even just a teeny-tiny little paper cut, I promise not even Wolfie and Odi Blight will be able to keep you safe. Got it?”

Despite the fact Amity had seen the Owl Beast on her Crystal Ball for the live feed of the petrification, she had never fully experienced the raw, primal power Eda kept contained for so long. Now, with those dual eyes fixed upon her, she could see the beast pacing just behind them, ready to do what needed to be done to protect its owlet. Its family. Swallowing, Amity straightened her back and met those feral eyes.

“Then let me tell you this, Owl Lady. Alador and Odalia Blight may be my parents, but,” she jerked her arm out of Eda’s grip. “I am not them. I don’t care about associating myself with the ‘most powerful’ or ‘strongest of witches’ anymore. Luz may be one of the strongest I’ve ever met, but that doesn’t matter to me. I care about her much more than my parents could ever comprehend, so don’t you dare for a moment think I would do anything to harm her.” Feeling her cheeks growing warm, Amity lifted her chin and pivoted on her heel to join Willow and Gus in the front yard, not bothering to look over her shoulder to see the Owl Lady’s reaction. If she had, she would have seen Eda cross her arms and raise an eyebrow in an amused, and slightly impressed reaction.

“Kid’s got guts,” she muttered to herself.

A couple minutes later, Luz bounded down the stairs, having changed into her signature hoodie, shorts, and leggings, and was skidding to a halt on the dirt with a pad of paper and pencil held aloft. Kicking the door closed behind her, Eda strolled up to the kids, while Lilith stayed safely behind against the walls of the Owl House. By then Hooty had managed to shake the abomination goop from his face and returned to the door, eagerly watching for what was to happen.

“Alrighty Luz, show me what you got.”

“On it, teach!” Luz quickly traced out the intricate lines of her new glyph, while Amity quickly began to push Willow and Gus back with her arms. Finishing with a flourish, Luz held it up for Eda to see.

Her eyebrows rose to her hairline. “Whoa, that’s a doozy for sure. You saw this in a dream?”

“The Dreamscape, yeah,”

“And this thing just…” the Owl Lady waved her hands around. “Tossed you up in the air? In a gust of wind?”

“Sort of, but it wasn't wind. Watch this.” Kneeling down, Luz placed the paper on the ground and lifted her hand, pausing for a moment to glance at her mentor. “Um, you might want to step back a bit.”

One eyebrow now raised, Eda backed away until Luz gave her a thumb’s up.

“Hey, Willow?”

The plant witch looked up at her name being called.

“Mind having some sort of crash mat ready? Ya know...just in case?”

“Sure thing!”

Seeing Willow trace a spell circle, Luz looked down at the sheet of paper and, taking a deep breath, slapped the glyph, quickly pushing off the ground and running as fast as she could. It still was not enough when the glyph erupted in a surge of the violet energy that swelled up from the ground, shoving Luz off her feet and projecting her forward. Thankfully, she managed to get far enough that when the force reversed itself to pull back in, she wasn’t yanked with it. Unfortunately, that meant she was projected head-on into her friends. All three of them, to be precise. They hit the ground in a pile of yelps and tangled limbs, sending Willow’s spell circling flying into the forest. A muffled explosion followed and a few stray flower petals were spat out from between the trees.

“Good move with the crash mat,” Gus growled from the bottom of the pile as Eda doubled over laughing.

“Hey, not my fault that happened!” Mumbled Willow, doing her best to wriggle out of the friend sandwich she somehow became trapped in. “How was I supposed to know Luz would go flying that fast?”

Groaning, Amity sat up and rubbed her head, doing her absolute best to ignore the sensation of Luz sprawled across her lap. “You saw her use the glyph when we were on our way here, so yes, this one was your fault.”

Luz rolled off the cluttered mess that was her friends and helped Amity to her feet. “Really sorry about that guys, I honestly thought I had it that time. Still got a lot to learn about this new glyph.” She helped pull up Willow and Gus, rubbing the back of her head. “At least this time it didn’t snag me backwards.”

“Yeah,” Gus brushed dirt from his shoulders. “Lucky us.”

From across the yard, Lilith shook her head while her sister continued laughing at the spectacle of the four trying to unhinge themselves from each other. “That is quite the unique spell to come across in the Dreamscape. I’ve never seen magic act that way before.”

“Wait till you see the glyph,” Eda grunted, wiping a tear from her eye. “Either the kid made it up in her head or the Dreamscape is a nice juicy safe stuffed full of wacky glyphs we can use. Maybe I can borrow back my key and do a little snooping around the Dreamscape myself?”

Lilith shot her a side-glance. “Unfortunately the Dreamscape is not so easy Edalyn. You can’t simply sneak into it and galavante about doing whatever you wish.”

“So, what?” Eda looked at her as Luz and her friends rejoined them. “You’re saying the Key picks who can go in and out?”

“The Key is an important factor, yes, but only because it could open a door between two worlds. It’s the Dreamscape that allows the dreamer to enter and control what happens around them.”

“Yeah!” Luz piped up. “Like a couple nights ago when Amity was having a bad dream. Somehow I got pulled in and I was able to make it all go away.” She grinned widely while Amity went bright pink. Eda glanced between the two of them, clearly amused, while Lilith nodded.

“Interesting,” she hummed. “Would you mind drawing that glyph again?”

“Sure!” Luz took out her pencil and everyone instantly backed away. “What? I’m not going to use it!”

Lilith walked around to stand behind Luz and leaned over her shoulder to watch her draw out the strange glyph. Once Luz was done, she tore the paper off the pad and handed it to the ex-coven leader. “Here ya go, once Dreamscape Glyph! Make sure you remember when you put it down, or you’ll be in for a surprise. No, King, I’m not drawing it on Eda’s chair.”

“What?” Eda whipped around to see the furry demon running around the side of the house with a kitchen chair held over his head and tore off after him. “King! You get back here you miserable fuzz bucket!”

Stifling a giggle by covering her mouth, Luz turned back to Lilith who was studying the glyph very intently. “So? Do you know what it is?”

“I’m not quite sure. It reminds me of the ancient runes used by the wild witches of the Savage Ages, but I would need to check my notes from my research at the coven.”

“Ya know, it's funny you bring that up,”

Lilith glanced up at Luz from the paper.

“I was actually wondering if I, that is, if we,” she gestured to her friends. “Could borrow your research notes? Amity mentioned you had some on this weirdo demon, maybe they’ll help?”

Surprised, Lilith looked at Amity. “You remembered that from our lessons?”

“How could I forget?” The cold, emotionless tone sent goosebumps along Luz’s arms as Amity lifted her chin to stare down her nose at her former mentor. “You had me reading through that book every single second when we weren’t practicing combat magic or whatever other spell you had for me to learn. Isn’t that what a mentor is supposed to do? Teach? Or just trick their students with power glyphs and watch them make fools of themselves?”

“Okay!” Luz yelped, grabbing Amity by the shoulders and spinning her around to face the door. “I think that’s enough fun for one day! Let's all mosey on up to my room and start planning our Saturday night sleepover! Hooty? Mind opening the door?”

“Hoot, hoot! Sure thing, Luz!” The house demon chirped, following the group into the living room. “What are we going to do for the sleepover? Eat snacks? Pillow fights? I can’t hold a pillow because I don’t have hands, but I can use my beak! Are we going to tell scary stories? I love scary stories! There’s this one where a group of kids go to this haunted house and-”

Willow closed the door to Luz’s room to cut off Hooty’s ramblings, even though they could still hear his muffled voice through the door. “Doesn’t he run out of breath?”

“I mean, he is the house and these walls do breathe, so,” Luz plopped down on her sleeping bag and shrugged. “Probably. I’ve heard him talk ten minutes straight, but he only stopped because a fly crossed his path and he went after it. There was that one time when Amity beat the stuffing out of him.”

“Like I said, if he touched me again, I would destroy him.”

Luz winced as she recalled prying the witch off of Hooty’s pummeled body. “Yeah, you did. Remind me to never get on your bad side.” Granted, the memory of Amity knocking her to the floor just last night was a fresh reminder of her strength, which meant the fact Luz was still in one piece was lucky. At the same time though, she didn’t think Amity would have actually kicked the stuffing out of her. Still, you could never be too careful. “So, sleepover plans!” She clapped her hands, grinning. “Where do we start?”

* * *

Lilith sat on the couch in the living room, thumbing absently through her coven book resting on her lap. Her eyes scanned over the notes, but she was not reading what they said. Despite the harshness of her words, Amity Blight was not wrong to say what she had said to her former mentor. In a moment of weakness and pride, she had chosen to stoop to the same expected level as her sister and cheat to win. Amity was, or had been, her brightest and best pupil. Training her had become a welcoming challenge and, as much as she hated admitting it, a distraction from her failures at curing Eda’s curse. When the Blight family ended her lessons with their youngest daughter, Lilith had no choice but to throw herself back into finding and healing her sister.

Now that she shared the same curse and was no closer to solving it than before, Lilith was eager to accept a new distraction. Perhaps this prophecy and the Dreamscape could be that? Rubbing at the persistent itch on her arm, the elder witch flipped back to the chapter dedicated to dreams and the powers of the mind. If the prophecy truly was linked to the Demon of Weird, then she would need to brush up on what she knew. The sound of someone entering the living room from the kitchen made her glance up to see Edalyn nursing a mug of apple blood.

“Little stinker thought he could be so funny putting that glyph on my chair.” Smirking, the Owl Lady sipped at her mug and Lilith raised an eyebrow. “His tiny legs let him get away from me.” Catching sight of the book, Eda leaned her shoulder against the wall and nodded to the pages. “Catching up on your notes before the big test?”

“In my early days at the coven, we had to learn about the ancient Greater Demons that came from the Chaos Realms into our world, and others. This Demon of Weird could not maintain form in the physical world without its own dimension spilling into the other.”

“So I’ve heard,” Eda mused, taking another sip. “It could communicate through the Mindscape and possess those it made a deal with. Messy stuff. But from what I was told, it was erased from all existence.”

Lilith glanced at her and opened her mouth to ask, then decided it was best she did not know how. Collecting garbage and the introduction of Luz were not the only interactions Edalyn had with the human world and, despite not having all the details, it was easy for Lilith to fill in the blanks. “That is what had me worried. If the demon was erased, why would an oracle speak of its return?”

“Maybe it's not the demon that’s returning,” scratching her chin, Eda glanced in the direction of the stairs to see if Luz was coming down. “That whole new glyph thing and the Dreamscape got me thinking. You know the Dreamscape can show memories, right?”

“Of course,” Lilith flipped to the specific page. “It is a gateway into the mind of the dreamer, allowing them to see not just their oldest memories, even the ones they have forgotten, but their deepest desires, thoughts, wishes, and of course their dreams.”

“Well, I was thinking,” Eda walked to the couch and sat down. “What if the prophecy isn’t about the demon, but about the memory of the demon? It may not exist anymore, but the memory could, and if that somehow was brought to life,”

“Then so would the demon.” Frowning, Lilith met her sister’s eyes, “But, doing so would require more power than even the Firestorm at its zenith. And, to find a memory of the demon, someone would have to have seen or met the demon. Knowing Luz, she would have mentioned that from the very start.”

Eda leaned back on the couch, crossing her arms as she thought about her apprentice. “Yeah, kid would have blabbed about it the second she’d see it. Plus, stumbling across our world wouldn’t have been as big a deal for her. Still,” Eda frowned at the ceiling. “Knowing she’s probably going to continue playing around in the Dreamscape has me nervous. Much as I respect her taking the initiative, I don’t want her messing around in a place where she could literally lose her mind. I’ll bet you ten snails that’s why she wants to do this sleepover thing with her little buddies.”

“Are you going to let her?”

Giving her sister a side-glance, Eda shrugged. “Even if I say no, she’ll still find a way to do it.”

“There are theories that those chosen by the Dreamscape can invite other dreamers who share a strong connection.” Lilith said, nodding. “But to revisit the Dreamscape, the selected dreamer would have to invite the others again and again, which can be draining on the psyche, to allow multiple persons into one space.”

“Now you’re just taking the fun out of it.” Getting to her feet and scooping up her mug, Eda walked back to the kitchen. “I’ll talk to Luz about this later, but maybe without all the gloom and doom. She’s gone through a lot, I don’t want her to snap from all this ‘chosen one’ biz, again.”

Sighing, Lilith shook her head and went back to reading through her notes, but with interest this time. Something she had said to Edalyn about the Dreamscape withholding memories caught her attention and she continued turning the pages until she found a diagram on a spiraling staircase. If the memories of the past, even the faint ones, were stored in the Dreamscape, then perhaps was the memory of her visit to the Night Market, and the scroll containing the Owl Beast curse. Hearing voices coming down the stairs, Lilith looked up to watch Luz and her friends cross the living room and the human opened the door for them. The excited energy was radiating off her like heat from the sun as she bounced on her toes.

“Oh man you guys, this is going to be the best sleepover ever! Technically my first too, but that will just make it better!” Squealing, Luz yanked the witchlings into a bear hug. “I’m so excited!”

“Luz,” Willow gasped. “Air - hugging - can’t breathe!”

“Oops!” Luz released her friends and grinned sheepishly. “Sorry bout that. See you guys tomorrow!”

The witchlings said their goodbyes and exited the house, but Amity held back, clutching her books to her chest. Luz was positive she saw Willow glance back and grab hold of Gus’ arm to pull him further down the path. Weird. She turned to Amity.

“You alright? Did you want your uniform back? I was going to wash it first but -”

“No! No, that’s not why I - um - I mean, I’m happy to take it back now, or later, I,” Swallowing, Amity hugged her books even tighter to her chest and Luz swore she heard a spine crack. Or was that Amity? “I was hoping that I could, that is, I wanted to ask you,” Her golden eyes darted from Luz to the forest to the house, and back.

Glancing up at the sky, Luz saw the sun had started to dip below the horizon and a thought clicked in her mind. “Did you want to ask me for a ride home?”

Amity blinked at her.

“I’ll need to ask Eda if I can borrow Owlbert, one sec.” she jogged back into the house before Amity could find her voice, running up to her room to grab the Abominations Track uniform. “Edaaaaaa! Can I borrow Owlbert to take Amity home?”

The Owl Lady’s voice drifted out from the kitchen. “I’m gonna have to start charging to rent for these flights. Yeah sure, just don’t do anything I would do!”

“You got it, teach!” Snatching up the palisman from his resting place against the wall, Luz snapped a finger gun at Lilith and hurried back outside. “Hey bud, no crazies this time, okay?” She whispered to the owl as he snapped open his wings. “I don’t want my first meeting with Mr. and Mrs. Blight to be about why I landed their daughter in the Healer’s Coven.”

Owlbert hooted in what she hoped was a yes and straddled staff before holding up a hand to Amity. “Your chariot, m’lady.”

Blushing, Amity took Luz’s hand and slipped on behind her, quickly wrapping her arms around her waist to brace herself for the takeoff. She remembered how fast they flew away from the library.

“Okay Owlbert, easy does it.” The staff floated off the ground with a gentleness Amity had not been expecting and when the palisman looped up and around the roof of the Owl House, she was actually able to feel the exhilaration of becoming airborne. Her arms hugged Luz’s middle, but her eyes stayed on their surroundings as they departed the section of the forest Eda called home.

They were about halfway to Blight Manor when Luz spoke. “Hey, Amity?”

“Yes?”

“About last night I,” Luz tightened her hold on the staff. “I’m really sorry for literally flying into your room and upsetting you. I - I thought I was just being a good friend, but I only made things worse. But, I want you to know that, what I said to you, all of that was true.” She stared out at the horizon ahead, choosing to focus on it instead of the warmth radiating from Amity pressed against her back and the slender arms around her waist. “See, the thing is I, I really do care about you and I don’t want to do anything that would ruin our friendship. It sounds selfish, I know, but, when you started hanging out with me, Willow, and Gus, things were so much more fun. Not that Willow and Gus aren’t already two of my best friends and we don’t have a blast as a group. But, when you’re with us? It just feels...better.” Seeing the rooftop of Blight Manor come into view, Luz shifted and pulled back for Owlbert to slow his speed. “Sorry, I don’t know why I said all that to you.”

“No Luz, it’s okay,” Amity gave her a gentle squeeze as they flew up to her bedroom window. Drawing a spell circle, the girls watched the latch inside lift and the window popped open. When Luz backed up so she could slide down onto the cushioned bench, Amity turned around and smiled at the human. “Thank you. Not just for the ride home but for what you said last night, and for the rose.” her face turned pink and Luz felt her stomach flip.

Owlbert drifted down a little so she was eye-level with Amity and Luz grinned sheepishly, scratching her head. “Oh, uh, yeah! You’re welcome! I didn’t want to just take off without leaving something behind. Dunno where the rose came from, but when it popped out of the glyph like that it just made sense! I mean, I hope you didn’t mind that I did that.”

Smiling, Amity kneeled on the window bench to rest her arms on the sill. “I’ll admit I wasn’t expecting that kind of gesture, but, it was sweet. Thank you, Luz.”

Luz sighed. “Phew! That’s a relief! I was worried you’d think I was trying to woo you away from your Grom date.” All the blood drained from Amity’s face and Luz squeaked. “I-I mean, not trying to make any assumptions here, after what we said to each other last night. Besides, I don’t know the first thing about wooing or flirting. Not that I wouldn’t want to with you! Wait, that came out wrong!” Clearing her throat, Luz leaned forward. “What I meant to say was -” Whatever she was about to say next stopped in her throat as the staff jerked forward, and every single thought that had been running through her brain ground to a halt. Her eyes stared straight into Amity’s, not sure what emotions, or emotion, was running behind them, only that they were wide and meeting hers.

Pulling away, the witch blinked at her and Luz reeled back, nearly tumbling off Owlbert, her face burning red.

“O-okay, um, well, see you tomorrow Amity!” Whipping the palisman around as fast as she could, Luz bolted over the trees and back towards the Owl House, her brain trying its best to catch up with what just happened. No, no, she was only imagining it. Owlbert simply slipped in the air and pitched ever so slightly forward. She bumped into Amity and that was it. Nothing happened, everything was fine!

From her place at the window, Amity watched Luz speed away from Blight Manor, her mouth hanging open slightly from the shock. Slowly, she brought a hand up to run her fingers over her tingling lips, blinking to register what felt like something that could only happen in a dream. It was short, quick, nothing more than a brief brush. But Amity was positive of it. She and Luz had kissed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So...that happened.


	11. Over and Under

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A huge thank you to RainbowBuddy and Maxrimus for being my beta-readers for this long-awaited chapter!

There were many things Amity Blight prided herself on: her studious nature; her ability to control the classroom; the tenacity she had to complete every single assignment handed her way with flying colors; and the raw magical strength she possessed. Yes, her parents had a hand in every single minute of her life, and she had bowed her head in submission for them to mold her in their perfect image. But even they could not control all the details of her life, which was why she chose to hide away in her little secret room in the Bonesborough library. Her own little safe haven where she could truly be herself.

Until Luz the human wrecking ball came in and upended it all.

First at school in the Abomination track, then the Covention, and the Library Incident. Everything Amity had known, everything she had worked so hard to maintain in her perfect order, turned upside down by the human’s crazy antics. Looking back on it all, Amity could not argue against her reasoning for loathing the energetic and wacky mannerisms that made Luz who she was; none of her behaviorisms made any sense, especially to someone who had known only strict order and rigid control. But all it took was the threat of being sewn into a book by an evil incarnation of a beloved children’s story, and all the assumptions she had of Luz went away.

“ _Now what?_ ”

“ _I don’t know! I didn’t even think that would work! I was all ‘raaaaaaaahhhh!’_ ”

Just the memory of that wordless battle cry had Amity covering her mouth to stifle her giggle and she shook her head. Now was not the time to reminisce, she had schoolwork to do. Amity stared down at the spellbook laying open on her desk, eyeing a page she had been reading for the past twenty minutes, and she groaned. Titan, was she ever going to concentrate? Pushing a few stray bangs out of her eyes, Amity skimmed through the spell formulae as she tried to force her brain to cooperate. When the spells started warping into things Luz had said, she slammed the book shut and leaned back in her chair.

“Bloody Titan, what is wrong with me?!”

That was a rhetorical question, but she knew the answer, and her name was Luz Noceda.

Amity shoved away from her desk and stood to pace around her room. With each lap, she stubbornly refused to allow her gaze to fall on the window bench where, only an hour before, Luz had kissed her. It was a far cry from the romantic display she had read about in books, and further still from the daring dreams she allowed herself to indulge in, but would never admit to in the light of day, but still, it was a kiss. Frowning, Amity crossed her arms as she thought about it. Maybe kiss was the wrong word to use, peck sounded more appropriate. The duration hadn’t been more than a couple seconds, so to say it was a kiss was, perhaps, a stretch.

Her head snapped up and she slapped her hands over her wildly wiggling ears. Titan, was she really trying to determine the facts of their first kiss?! Cheeks burning hotter than an incubated dragon egg, Amity fell flat onto her bed and planted her face into her pillow. Had she not let out a wordless shriek of inarticulate frustration, she would have heard the knock at the door which heralded the arrival of two pairs of feet approaching her from behind.

“Whatcha doing, Mittens?”

“Practicing for your confession?”

Her eyes popped open in shock and she whipped around to stare up at her older siblings in horror. The twins were flanking either side of her bed, barring her escape, their signature impish grins on their faces. Taking a deep breath and counting backwards from ten, Amity clenched her fists and steeled herself. “What are you two doing in my room?” She growled, sitting up. “I’m busy studying.”

“Uh-huh,” Ed glanced to his twin. “I didn’t know kissing your pillow counted as studying. Are you trying to figure the thread count?”

Amity gave her brother a deadpan expression.

“Don’t be ridiculous, Ed.” Despite herself, Amity felt hope flicker across her face. “No,” Emira continued, “I think she was kissing her pillow to practice for a certain lil-cutie patootie.”

Amity fought down the red haze of frustration that her siblings’ jabs never failed to cause. She took a deep breath to try and control her furiously blushing face. She knew that at least part of her fiery flush was due to the fact she had already been kissed and the twins didn’t know. Titan, she hoped they didn’t know. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Oh? Then how come we saw your girlfriend flying away from the house all red in the face?”

“G-girlfriend?!” Amity launched off the mattress with her pillow in hand and swung it at Emira’s head, but she ducked out of the way, laughing. “Luz is just a friend! Yes, she’s a girl and a friend, but she’s not my girlfriend!”

Emira side-stepped another pillow chop and grinned. “Then, you wouldn’t mind if I asked her out, would you?”

“Look at her face!” Ed laughed.

Snarling, Amity glared at her siblings as they darted around the room, keeping the bed between them and their younger sister like a barrier. “Are you here just to annoy me or is there a legitimate reason you came barging in?”

Playfully toying with her long braid, Emira smiled cheekily and propped a hand on her hip. “My my. Aren’t we testy today?”

“We just came to tell you dinner will be ready soon.” The teasing light faded from Ed’s eyes, as did his sister's. “Mom expects you to be there.”

Like water tossed over a flame, Amity felt her frustration vanish and the pillow she had clenched dropped to the floor from limp fingers. If their mother expected her children at dinner then that meant there was something she wanted to discuss with them. No surprise, considering they would be gone for the weekend and most likely wanted to lay down the law. Especially after the time Ed and Em tried to make copies of the entire household staff. There was a reason why they had to get rid of so many mirrors in the spare rooms and halls.

“Okay,” she nodded slowly and walked back to her desk to push in her chair. “I’ll be right down.”

“See you in a bit, Mittens.” Em said and the twins walked out the room, closing the door but not enough for it to shut. As they walked away, Amity could hear her sister mutter to Ed. “I think we really hit a soft spot with that ‘girlfriend’ bit.”

“Did you see how mad she got? I thought she’d throw one of us out the window!”

Rolling her eyes, Amity leaned against her chair and sighed heavily. She would just have to mull over her homework and jumbled feelings about Luz later. Now, it was time to put on the mask of Amity Blight, Top Student, and have dinner with her parents.

* * *

Luz told herself she would not think about it. Nothing happened, so there wasn’t anything to think about. She tried to focus on the flight back home, but she couldn’t. Even trying to mentally read through the fifth _Azura_ book lasted no more than a few seconds. She would not think about it, she would not think about it.

“I’m not thinking….” she muttered under her breath as Owlbert came to a landing outside of the Owl House. Hooty zoomed out to greet her, jabbering utter nonsense, but Luz barely heard him. “I’m not thinking…”

Eda called out to her from the kitchen and Luz absently raised a hand in acknowledgement as she propped Owlbert against the wall. Her feet carried her up the stairs and to her bedroom where she crossed the cramped space to the window and pushed open the glass to sit on the ledge. The light from the setting sun had turned the Boiling Sea a vibrant hue of deep purple, sending golden beams across the waves.

She did not kiss Amity Blight. They just bumped heads. Slightly. Okay, maybe their noses booped too, but that didn’t mean they kissed. Right?

A faint tingle lingered over Luz’s lips and she lightly brushed her fingers over them. Even if it was a kiss, it hardly counted as one. Luz had read more than enough fan fiction and watched enough anime to know what a real kiss was like...okay, an imaginary kiss, and that little bump between her and Amity was not a kiss. Besides, if they were to actually kiss, it would have to be perfect. Swaying beneath the moonlight to a soft tune, holding each other in their arms, the stars reflected in Amity’s shimmering amber eyes as Luz would dip her down and slowly lean in, her lips lightly brushing the witch’s before - wait, what?!

“Stopstopstop!” Luz slapped her cheeks, ripping her gaze from the Boiling Sea. “Don’t go there, Noceda. Amity is just a friend! A magical top student witch who is kind and caring, and beautiful… _Augh_!!!!” her eyes widened and she dug her fingers into her hair. Dropping onto her bedroll, Luz threw her face into her pillow, screaming out every ounce of oxygen in her lungs. What was wrong with her?

“Should I come back later?”

Luz’s head shot up and she whirled around to see Lilith standing in the doorway, pausing as if she were about to knock on the door. A single eyebrow was arched delicately as she eyed the red-faced girl curiously, lowering her hand to clasp it behind her back.

“I was coming to tell you that Edalyn says dinner is ready. I can tell her you would like some time to yourself, if you would prefer?”

For probably one of the few times in her so far short life, food was not in Luz’s best interest at the moment. Plus, having to face Eda and Lilith after whatever had just happened - but it wasn’t a kiss! - when she had defended Amity in front of them yesterday was even less appealing.

Lilith cocked her head to the side. “Is everything alright?”

“Yes...no...maybe?” Growling, Luz turned back around to plop her face into her pillow. She didn’t hear Lilith enter her room, but when she glanced over her shoulder, she saw the elder witch still standing in the doorway. Concern filled her eyes and her hands were held behind her back, but she looked as if she was torn with an internal dilemma. It took Luz a full minute to realize the witch was waiting to be told to either go away or come in. Sighing, Luz sat on her heels. She would have to tell someone about this, and technically, Lilith had known Amity the best out of the residents of the Owl House. Even if she had tricked Amity into cheating.

“I think I have a problem.”

“Oh?”

Tapping her fingers together, Luz stared at the floor in an attempt to hide the blush she knew was burning across her face. “So, you know I took Amity back home, right? Well, we knew her mom and dad were home and I didn’t want her to get caught, so Owlbert flew us to her window.” Even just reliving the memory was making the blush burn hotter. Swallowing, Luz continued. “Amity got off and we said goodbye to each other, but then this...gust of wind came out of nowhere and I think we sorta-kinda-maybe...kissed?”

Sorta-kinda-maybe? Oh sure, that was a convincing way to not sound like a total goober. Bracing herself - for what, she did not know - Luz was surprised when Lilith slowly crossed the floor and kneeled down in front of her bedroll. The look on her face was a kind smile, though clearly she was also trying her best to hold back her amusement.

“And, how does that make you feel?”

Luz pulled her legs to her chest and rested her chin on her knees. “Honestly, I don’t know. I mean, I don’t even know if we really _did_ kiss.”

“Are you wishing you had?”

The question caught Luz off guard and she looked up at Lilith. There was no judgement in her tone, just genuine curiosity. Did she want to kiss Amity? Just a minute ago she was imagining a more romantic scene in her head, but that didn’t actually mean anything, right? Luz shook her head.

“I didn’t mean to! We’re friends! Friends don’t kiss friends on the lips! When friends do kiss friends, they’re not friends anymore! And Amity’s one of my best friends! If we did kiss, what does that make us? I don’t want to do anything to mess up our friendship! Do you know how long it took me to get her to trust me enough to be my friend?” Shuffling on her bedroll, Luz dropped her eyes back to the floor and squeezed her legs closer to her chest. “I didn’t have any friends back home. This is the first place I’ve ever really been able to be accepted, and I don’t want to lose her.”

It was quiet while Lilith processed Luz’s words, her dual-colored eyes studying her sister’s human apprentice carefully. There was still a lot she did not know about this energetic, bubbly girl and her home, but even she could sense the weight of Luz’s anxiety. To have experienced such judgement and prejudice for being different was something she was familiar with. Not personally, but for what her own sister had experienced as children. Sighing, Lilith rested her hands in her lap and smiled at Luz.

“I think you're thinking about this too much. I know I’m the least person you would want to take advice from, and honestly I wouldn’t blame you,” she looked away when the human glanced up at her. “I still have a lot to make up for, what I did to you, to Edalyn, and to Amity. But, I believe she would not hold this against you. Amity may be part of the Blight household, but she is smart enough to have a mind of her own, and she cares for you.” Lilith had seen the way Amity watched Luz when the witchlings had been in the Owl House earlier. It was evident just how much Amity felt for Luz, even if the human was too oblivious to notice, but Lilith had a feeling this was something to be left strictly between the two girls. “If it bothers you, why don’t you talk it over with her?”

“What?” Luz yelped, her face going even redder. “But - but - but, what if she doesn’t want to talk about it? What if she gets mad and says she never wants to see me again?”

“That’s a lot of ‘what ifs’ to worry about.” Sighing, Lilith stood up and brushed out her skirt. “Try not to worry so much about the possibilities of what could happen. If Amity really is your friend, then she will hear you out and, if she is willing, she will tell you what she thinks. You’ll never know what will happen unless you try. Now, should I tell Edalyn to leave you a plate or will you be joining us?”

Chewing her lip, Luz sighed and got to her feet. “I’ll be down in a sec. Thanks, Lilith.”

A flash of surprise darted in the ex-coven leader’s eyes before she quickly recovered and nodded to Luz with a small smile. “Of course, Luz.”

That night, Luz turned the Portal Key over in her fingers, studying the wide lidless yellow eye. Why her? Out of all the Boiling Isles inhabitants to have used it in the past, including Eda, why pick her to enter the Dreamscape? She was a nobody. Just a visitor to the demon realm. What could she possibly do with that? All she had been able to do was wander around people’s dreams, relive her own memories, and finding some wack gravity glyph she could make neither heads nor tails of. Setting the key on the floor next to her pillow, Luz settled into her sleeping bag and shut her eyes, thoughts buzzing through her mind of Amity and the Dreamscape. She did not want to go there tonight, not after what she had seen and felt over the past few days. For once, she wanted to just have a normal everyday dream, if such a thing existed. Unfortunately for that night and the rest after, the Dreamscape was not about to leave her in peace.

By the time Friday came about, Luz had to pinch herself every five seconds to make sure she was actually awake, and it was getting annoying. The Dreamscape did not seem to be in the mood to leave its chosen wanderer alone. In all truth, Luz was enjoying the wild sensations of exploring the world of dreams and had begun to make new discoveries she was more than eager to show her friends.

Sadly though, that did not help her in finding the courage to talk to Amity about the kiss. If anything, spending more time in the Dreamscape made it even harder for Luz to stay within the same proximity as the green-haired witch. Amity was apparently in a similar mindset as well. Any time Luz would try to speak to the witchling, she would either spit out a rapid-fire excuse before darting away or she would simply be impossible to find in the first place.

It hurt Luz more than she wanted to admit, even to herself, how Amity seemed to be going out of her way to avoid her.

_I guess I was being stupid._ Luz thought as she poked her Mystery Meat lunch with her fork, making little divots in the less-than-appealing grey mass. _How could someone like Amity forgive me for doing something as dumb as that? Calling her beautiful, leaving her a magical flower, and Owlbert making us kiss? She probably hates me, and I can’t even talk to her about it._ Sighing, Luz continued to prod at her food, oblivious to the looks of concern Willow and Gus had fixed on her.

They knew about what had happened between the girls, Luz had told them the very next day when Willow had noticed a distant look in the human’s usually bright, energetic eyes. Between classes, the two friends had tried to find a solution to fix the situation.

“Of course, Amity doesn’t hate Luz for kissing her!” Gus shoved his fingers into his hair frustratedly. “She’s probably just torn between her feelings for Luz and her overbearing parents!”

Having been the target of said overbearing parents, Willow could not argue against that. “It just caught them both off guard. They both care about each other, but they can’t get out of their own way to say how they feel.” The plant track student pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed heavily. Why did two of her most hard headed friends have to crush on each other? It was not an easy issue to work through. Willow had been able to stay in contact with Amity and, after nearly an entire day of neutral back and forth messaging on their scrolls, Willow finally hit something.

“Amity still wants to do the sleepover tomorrow.” She mused, rubbing her chin. “Her parents have been keeping her on edge with the whole break-in at Hexside, ordering that she go straight to the house after school.”

Gus’ eyes lit up. “Great! Then we should tell Luz!” His smile dropped when Willow shook her head, the thoughtful look not leaving her face.

“I think it’s better if Amity tells Luz she’s still going.”

“But,” the witchling frowned. “How are we going to make her do that?”

Humming, Willow glanced at the time to see they both had one more class before lunch, and lucky her, she was going to have one with Amity. A knowing smile worked its way across her face. “I think I’ve got an idea.”

That Saturday morning, Luz jumped out of her sleeping bag with the energy of someone who had finally seen a decent night’s sleep. For once, the Dreamscape had let her enjoy a good old fashioned dreamless slumber, and Luz was feeling more like herself. Well, almost so, since she still had not heard from Amity and all Gus and Willow knew was that she had been ordered by her parents to go straight from school to Blight Manor. No detours. That gave Luz some hope that Amity wasn’t upset with her, though she wished the witchling had at least talked to her at school. Even if they didn’t have an abominations class to share, Luz would have preferred to to spend at least a little time with Amity. Her face flushed at that thought.

_Oh cramity, what is wrong with me?_

“You alright there, kid?”

Luz’s head snapped up from her breakfast to see Eda studying her closely. “What? Oh yeah, I’m good!”

“You sure? You’ve been blushing at your cereal for five minutes without touching it. I even bought the kind that isn’t alive.”

The memory of the crunchy green Scorn Flakes crawling up and out of her bowl like an army of angry ants was enough to kill Luz’s appetite then and there. Good thing she needed to get moving anyways. “Nah, I’m good.” Luz slurped her cereal from the bowl and quickly placed it in the sink, scooping her messenger bag from her chair. “I’m gonna go meet up with Willow and Gus in town to grab some stuff for our sleepover.”

“And lil Blighty too?” Eda raised an eyebrow at her apprentice over the rim of her mug, snorting at the deer-in-headlights expression, before Luz shook her head to get rid of her thoughts.

“Uh, yeah, I think so...later!” Luz darted out the door and around the house, waving a goodbye to Hooty who was busy admiring a leaf drifting along in the dirt.

While she could have asked to borrow Owlbert for a ride into Bonesborough, Luz had a sneaking suspicion the cheeky palisman would try to get her into even more trouble with Amity than she already was. A nice walk into town would help clear her mind, and Luz enjoyed strolling through the streets of the town. Thankfully, none of the demons or witches so much as glanced at her which told her that either they didn’t recognize her from the broadcast of Eda’s attempted petrification, or just didn’t care. Either way, Luz was able to easily make her way to the fountain at the center of the market square where she agreed to meet Willow and Gus, and hopefully, Amity. Knowing that she had arrived early, Luz plopped down on the lip of the fountain and pulled out a copy of the _Azura_ book she carried around to pass the time with.

She had just started on the chapter where Azura and Hecate were about to call a truce in order to down a mutual enemy when approaching footsteps made her glance up to see a familiar head of green hair bobbing through the crowds.

_Amity!_

Luz snapped her book shut and jumped to her feet as Amity approached the fountain, a duffel bag slung over her shoulder. Gus was walking alongside her, wearing a backpack, and the two appeared to be in a heated debate, their voices in hushed tones.

“You’re sure they do that?” Amity frowned at the younger witchling. “It has to be completely false.”

Gus thumped his chest in a proud motion, which would have looked a lot more impressive if he wasn’t so short. “I will have you know, Amity Blight, that I have the most reliable sources of human knowledge known to witch!”

“It sounds more like something for torture than fun, why would humans do such a thing?”

“Do what?” Luz asked, walking up behind them.

Both witches jumped, Amity’s face going a bright red, and Gus bit his lip.

“Luz! You’re here! I mean, of course you’re here, this is where we agreed to meet! So of course you’d be waiting here for...us…” Amity’s face was turning redder by the second. Luckily, Gus stepped in smoothly to avoid a nuclear meltdown.

“Sorry we're late, Luz. I bumped into Amity a bit ago and was telling her about this new human activity.”

Blinking, Luz looked from Gus to Amity’s burning face and back, raising an eyebrow. “Oh? And what would that be?”

* * *

Amity was in Hell. Okay, maybe that was an exaggeration, but it felt like Hell. There was very little doubt that she had the physical capability to handle such an ordeal, but her mentality of the situation? That was an entirely different problem. Every single moment she felt Luz brush against her or share a moment of eye contact, Amity felt like her brain would implode. Thankfully, those warm brown eyes slid away from her and fixed on Gus in anticipation of what would happen next. 

“Willow, left foot yellow!”

Grunting, the Plant Track student wriggled her heel along the mat to the massive dot, her hands braced to hold her in position, making it look like she was about to wheelbarrow away. Only her right foot remained free, toes bouncing in an attempt to keep herself from toppling over, which made little sense to Amity considering she was the one with the sturdiest position. Luz was splayed out in a dizzying display of limbs that did little to quell Amity’s anxiety, given the fact the human’s left knee was an inch from her nose. Her legs were splayed out in an awkward half-split, leaving her left hand to push into the yellow dot in a desperate struggle to stay upright. Of course, Amity was crouched with her arms stretched in a wide handstand, and her right foot set firmly on the mat. Putting her directly behind Luz.

 _Titan, give me strength!_ She feebly prayed as Gus spun the spindle. “Okay Luz, right foot red!”

With a groan, Luz scooted her foot to the side, her socked foot brushing Amity’s fingers. 

“Sorry Amity!” She squeaked when the witch bristled at the contact.

Willow snorted and Amity shot her a warning glare, listening to the spindle whirl around. 

“Okay, Amity, right foot- ”

“Aaaaaugh,” Willow suddenly cried out and dramatically flopped onto her stomach, conveniently missing Luz and Amity. “Oh no, I fell! I guess I’m out of the game!”

Amity could have filled an entire pot of honey with the sweet innocence that oozed from Willow’s voice as she scooted off the mat and sat down beside Gus. 

“I guess it’s just Luz and Amity now.” 

“Get the popcorn.” Eda said from the kitchen doorway. 

Face burning from both embarrassment and the exertion of staying upright, Amity sank her teeth into her lip in the hopes that whatever move Gus gave her would end this torture.

“Okay, Amity, that’s right foot red!” 

Of course. Hissing through her teeth, Amity eyed the evil red dot where her foot was destined to go and, channeling every ounce of athletic prowess she had, reached out with her toes. She felt the ball of her foot press into the slippery mat, and her sock shot out, throwing her entire leg up and hooking into Luz’s knee.

The human yelped as they crashed to the floor in a tangled mess of arms and legs. Groaning, Amity lifted her face from the plastic material of the mat and looked over her shoulder.

_OhmydearsweetTitan._

Luz had somehow managed to not only land on top of her, but her entire body was flattened over Amity’s back. When Luz grunted, her breath tickled the pointed end of Amity’s right ear and it involuntarily flicked. A high-pitched squeal nearly killed her hearing as Luz shifted.

“Oh my gosh, Amity! You didn’t tell me your ears wiggle! That’s so cute!”

“Luz,” Amity gasped. “You’re crushing me.”

“Wha?” Luz looked down to realize her chest was resting on Amity’s back. Her whole face went bright red. “Oh. Um. I guess that’s game over.” 

Despite her burning face, Amity found herself wanting to play again. But, they had another activity to do, the reason they had come over, or so Amity told herself. It was time for them to see the Dreamscape.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey gang! Remember how I mentioned I would be working on this story as well as a few other projects? Well, one of those projects is in the works and I cannot even speak to how excited I am for you all to read it. Details are going to remain low key, but I do plan to start teasing it out as we get closer to publishing.  
> Yes, we.  
> I will be working on my very first collaboration with none other than the amazingly talented Tripower, whose work you may be familiar with in Rohad’s Immortal Devotion. We’re both thrilled to work on this project and can’t wait for when it is ready to be published. Oh, you want a hint? Hm...Luz is Hades and Amity is Persephone. I will leave you with that.  
> Till next time!


End file.
